held for eighty years the office of clerk of the courts of Rockbridge county. William A. Ross, brother of the foregoing, entered the service with the students of the university of Virginia in April, 1861, was afterward promoted lieutenant in the Fifty-second regiment, and gave his life for the cause near Hanover Court House in the spring of 1863.
William G. Rouse, of Smithfield, Va., a veteran of the artillery of the army of Northern Virginia, was born in King and Queen county November 6, 1834, the son of Mordecai and Maria S. (Rowe) Rouse. His father was a native of Caroline county, as was also his grandfather, William Rouse, and both were farmers by occupation. The father, who was born in the closing years of the eighteenth century, served in the war of 1812. By his marriage to the daughter of Handsford Rowe of King and Queen county, he had three sons and three daughters. All of the sons served in the Confederate army, Mordecai B. as a sergeant in a company of heavy artillery from New Kent county until his capture at Sailor's Creek, after which he was imprisoned at Point Lookout until June, 1865; and John H. as a corporal in the same company, suffering capture and imprisonment in the same manner. The first died in 1884, the second on August 8, 1897. Both were brave and faithful soldiers and during four years of arduous service proved their loyalty to the cause of Virginia. William G. Rouse served a five years' apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, and then, on October 23, 1856, made his home at Smithfield, where he has ever since been engaged in the business of a cabinet-maker and undertaker, with much success, except during the period of his war service. He enlisted April 29, 1861, as a sergeant in the Old Dominion Light Artillery Blues, which was subsequently transferred to the heavy artillery service and attached to the Nineteenth Virginia battalion, commanded by J. Wiley Atkinson. He served with this command throughout the four years' war, principally stationed on the line of defenses of Richmond. At the time of the battle of Sailor's Creek he escaped the capture which befell his command by being absent on detail, and a few days later he surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox. Just before the war he was married, November 18, 1860, to Martha A. Archer, of Smithfield, who died October 5, 1876. Five children are living: Eva P., wife of Jackson Noel; Ruth E., wife of C. F. Nelms; William E., in business at Newport News; Sarah E., wife of Claude Hutchins; and Mattie V., wife of W. W. Joyner. November 28, 1895, Mr. Rouse was married to Eugenia (Whitley) Stephenson. William E. Rouse, son of the foregoing, born at Smithfield, Va., July 26, 1869, was engaged in business with his father in his youth, and after thoroughly equipping himself for his profession by study at Richmond, founded an establishment at Newport News, which is now under his very successful supervision. He is regarded as one of the honorable and reliable business men of the city, is popular socially, and is prominent in the Methodist church as a member of the official board. In 1894 he was married to Edna S. Hudgins, formerly of Yorktown, and they have one child, Dorothy.
Lieutenant Charles F. Russell, M. D., of Herndon, Va., a distinguished veteran of the Seventh Virginia cavalry, was born in
