History of Fredericksburg, (Rockbridge County) Virginia United States of America

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Biographies:

Henry Hopkins Sibley, soldier, was born in Nachitoches, La., May 25, 1816; grandson of Dr. John and Betsey (Hopkins) Sibley. He was graduated from the U.S. Military academy, and promoted 2d lieutenant, 2d dragoons, July l, 1838. He took part in the Florida war; was promoted 1st lieutenant, March 8, 1840, and served in the expedition into the Everglades of Florida, Dec. 3?24, 1840. He was adjutant of 2d dragoons at regimental headquarters, 1841?42 and 1842?46, being stationed at Fort Jesup, La., and Fort Washita, Indian Territory; participated in the military occupation of Texas, 1845?46, and was promoted captain, Feb. 16, 1847. He served through the Mexican war, being engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, skirmish of Medelin, battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and the capture of the city of Mexico, and was brevetted major, March 25, 1847, for Medelin. He was in garrison in Mississippi in 1848; on recruiting service, 1848?50; on frontier duty at Forts Graham and Croghan, Texas, 1850?53, and other Texan depots, 1853?55: engaged in quelling the Kansas disturbances, 1855?57; in the Utah expeditions, 1857?60; was in garrison at Forts Marcy and Defiance, New Mexico, in 1860, and in the same year engaged in the Navajo expedition. He was promoted major and transferred to the 1st dragoons, May 13, 1861, but resigned on that day to enter the Confederate service. As brigadier-general, he was placed in command of the Confederates in New Mexico, July 5, 1861, raised a brigade of 2,000 men in Texas, with which he marched from Fort Bliss in January, 1862, and succeeded in forcing the national troops under Col. E. R. S. Canby from Valverde, N.M., 21, 1862. He took possession of Albuquerque and .Santa F?, but was subsequently driven froth Peralta and sought refuge in Fort Bliss in April, 1862. He completed his service in the Confederate army under Gen. Richard Taylor and Gen. E. K. Smith; served as a brigadier-general of artillery in the Egyptian army, 1869?74, where he was active in building coast and river defences, and on his return to the United States, lectured on the working classes of Egypt. He was the inventor of a tent constructed upon the plan of Indian wigwams, for which he received letters-patent, and for the use of which the army made a contract. The terms of the contract, however, were never fulfilled, owing to alleged disloyalty on the part of General Sibley, and his claims, unsettled at the time of his death, were unsuccessfully brought forward by his friends in February, 1889. He died at Fredericksburg, Va., Aug. 23, 1886.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Samuel Lewis Southard, statesman, was born in Baskingridge, N.J., June 9, 1787; son of Henry Southard . He was graduated from the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1804. A.M., 1807; taught school in New Jersey; studied law while a tutor in the family of John Taliaferro of Virginia; was admitted to the Virginia bar, and practised in Trenton, N.J. He served as deputy-attorney for several years; was admitted as counsellor-at-law in 1814; elected a member of the state legislature in 1815, and a week after taking his seat was appointed an associate justice of the supreme court of New Jersey, serving, 1815?21. He was a presidential elector on the Monroe and Tompkins ticket, 1820; and was a senator from Feb. 16, 1821, to March 3, 1823, completing the term of James J. Wilson . He was secretary of the navy in the cabinets of Monroe and Adams, Sept. 16, 1823?March 3, 1829, meanwhile acting as secretary of the treasury, March 7?July 1, 1825, and for a brief time as secretary of war. He was attorney-general of New Jersey, 1829; governor of the state, 1832; was again U.S. senator from Dec. 2, 1833, to May 31, 1842, when he resigned. During the 27th congress he acted as president of the senate pro tem-pore. He was a trustee of Nassau Hall, College of New Jersey, and a charter trustee of Princeton Theological seminary, 1822?42, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1832. He is the author of: Reports of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1816?20 (1819?20); Centennial Address (1832); Discourse on William Wirt (1834). He died in Fredericksburg, Va., June 26. 1842.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Thomas Reed Rootes Cobb, lawyer, was born at Cherry Hill, Jefferson county, Ga., April 10, 1823; son of John Addison and Sarah (Rootes) Cobb, and brother of Howell Cobb, statesman. He was graduated at the University of Georgia in 1841 with the highest honors of his class, and was for a time professor in the law school connected with the university. He was admitted to the bar and was reporter of the supreme court of Georgia, 1849-57, resigning the office to resume the practice of his profession. He was a member of the state secession convention of 1860. In 1861 he was elected a representative from Georgia in the first Confederate congress and was chairman of the committee on naval affairs. In August, 1861, he entered the Confederate army as colonel; was promoted brigadier-general in November, 1862, and led the famous Cobb's Georgia legion at the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., where he was killed. He was a trustee of the University of Georgia, 1858-62, and founded the Lucy Cobb institute, Athens, Ga., named for his daughter. He was married to Marion McHenry, daughter of Chief-Justice Lumpkin of Lexington, Ga. He published Digest of the Laws of Georgia (1851); Inquiry Into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States (1858); and Historical Sketch of Slavery (1859). He died at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

John Leyburn, clergyman, was born in Lexington, Va., April 25, 1814; son of John and Jane (McDowell) Leyburn; grandson of George and Abigail Leyburn, and a descendant of an English family who settled in Ireland in the sixteenth century, and were connected with Derry in its early history, and members of which immigrated to America in the eighteenth century. He was a brother of Dr. Alfred Leyburn and of the Rev. George W. Leyburn, He was graduated from Washington college, Lexington, Va., in 1831, and from the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1833, A.M., 1836. He studied theology at the Union Theological seminary in Virginia and at Columbia, S.C., and entered the Presbyterian ministry. He organized a church at Gainesville, Ala., in 1836, and during his two years' pastorate built a church for the congregation. He was pastor of the Tabb Street Presbyterian church at Petersburg, Va., 1888-44, and during his pastorate built a large church edifice. On being appointed secretary of the Presbyterian board of publication, he removed to Philadelphia, Pa., 1844, where he remained until 1860. He was married at Fredericksburg, Va., in 1845 to Mary Louisa Stuart, daughter of Col. Hugh Mercer. He became part owner and chief editor of the Philadelphia Presbyterian in 1847, but at the outbreak of the civil war resigned his position and returned to Virginia, his sympathies being with the Southern cause. He served as secretary of the domestic missions and publication of the Preebyterian church, south, 1861-65; was pastor of an Independent Presbyterian church in Baltimore, Md., 1865-87, and pastor emeritus, 1887-94. He was a trustee of the College of New Jersey, 1875-86. He received the degree of D.D. from Hampden-Sydney college, Virginia, in 1849. He traveled in Europe and the Holy Land, and contributed many articles on his travels to the Presbyterian and the New York Observer. He is the author of: The Soldier of the Cross (1851); Hints to Young Men from the Parable of the Prodigal Son (1880); Lectures on the Journeyings of the Children of Israel from the Land of Bondage to the Land of Promise (1885). He died at The Manse, Waynesboro, Va., the home of his niece, Mrs. A. R. Cocke, in August, 1894.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor