Charlotte a council was held by the officers present to determine their future course, and it was decided to surrender with General Johnston. But Colonel Martin, not approving this course, left the council, followed by several other officers, and they tendered their services to the president as a bodyguard. They were accepted. Colonel Martin to be in command, and accordingly armed themselves with the firearms available, Martin receiving from an aide of the president a sixteen-shooter arm, since presented by him to the museum at Richmond. Soon afterward the president reconsidered his plans and, to avoid the effusion of blood, continued his journey without the "Old Guard," which would have defended their chief to the death. Colonel Martin, with Generals Gilmer and Lawton, followed the president to Washington, Ga., where the cabinet was finally disbanded, after which he rode to Augusta, intending to make his way to Mexico, but, being prevented by the Federal troops, he surrendered and was paroled under the terms of Johnston's capitulation. He then returned to Norfolk and resumed the practice of his profession. Subsequently he resided in New York city four years, while there being a member of the Seventh New York regiment. He successfully practiced his profession there, winning a suit that involved a new application of the law and which was a matter of comment by the press and bar. But failing health compelled him to return to his native State and to outdoor life in the country. In 1881 he was elected to the State senate by the city of Norfolk and the county of Princess Anne, and three years later he resigned to accept the position of railroad commissioner for Virginia to which he was elected by the legislature. After two years' tenure of this office he removed to Norfolk and resumed his legal practice, in which he has achieved prominence and success. At this city he has held the office of police commissioner, and has twice been elected to the Virginia house of delegates from Norfolk county. He is a member of the Catholic church, one of the charter members of Owen's lodge, F. & A. M., and is distinguished alike as a public speaker, lecturer and historical writer of rare ability. In 1857 he was married to Georgia A. Wickens, and they have one son, a lawyer by profession, who bears his father's name, and is married to a daughter of Capt. William E. Peery, a brave Confederate who lost an arm at Gettysburg, and two daughters living: Theresa and Marina. Another daughter, deceased, was May, wife of Samuel C. Peery, of Tazewell county, who left a son, Samuel Cecil Peery. She was distinguished in painting, music and poetry.
Hugh McD. Martin, M. D., of Fredericksburg, a native of Scotland, who enlisted in 1861, with all the ardor of a native Southerner, in the ranks of the Confederacy, was born March 15, 1828. After receiving an education at Glasgow and Edinburgh, he sailed to Louisiana, in 1853, for the benefit of his health and to visit an uncle who had become the owner of a plantation in that State. He was persuaded to remain and finish his medical education in the university of Louisiana, and, after his graduation, in 1855, he practiced his profession in Ouachita parish until 1859, when he returned to Edinburgh to pursue a post-graduate course of study. Early in 1861, hearing of the prospect of war in the United States, he determined to participate in the effort of the South for independence, and reached New York on the first day of March, 1861.
