with the degree of doctor of medicine, after which he became a practicing pharmacist at Richmond. There he became a member of the Richmond Howitzers, and in 1859 was with the troops sent to preserve order in the Harper's Ferry region at the time of John Brown's attempt at insurrection. He was a witness of the execution of Brown. In April, 1861, he went into active service with the Howitzers, and being ordered to the peninsula was in the opening fight at Big Bethel. In July he took part in the affair at Blackburn's Ford and the battle of Manassas, and then returned to the peninsula, where he participated in the campaign against McClellan, including Malvern Hill. He was again in action at Second Manassas and Fredericksburg, and in March, 1863, was ordered to Richmond on recruiting service. Soon afterward he was commissioned lieutenant, artillery corps, C. S. A., and assigned to ordnance duty with the army of Northern Virginia, in which he continued until the close of the war, surrendering with General Lee at Appomattox. With the return of peace he embarked in the drug trade at Richmond, and thence removed to Norfolk in 1868, where for thirty years he has been doing a successful business. He has also been prominent throughout this period as an analytical chemist and a teacher of pharmacy. His ability is widely recognized, particularly in his own profession, and he has had the honor of serving as president of the Virginia pharmaceutical association.
Lewis D. Thomas, now a citizen of Baltimore, Md., was among the youth of the Old Dominion who rallied to the service of their native State early in the conflict, devoted to the cause and eager for the fray, though not yet of years to entitle them to citizenship in civil life. His father, Robert S. Thomas, who was born at Norfolk, Va., in 1818, and removed to Richmond in 1860, served as a private in the Richmond Reserves, who guarded the government property and upon occasions were called upon for serious action in the defenses of the city when it was threatened, in the absence of the main army. He participated in the defense of Fort Gilmer. The father of this patriot, also a Virginian, and a native of Matthews county, was a private soldier in the company of Captain Corbin in the war of 1812, and died in 1833 at the age of about seventy years. Thus the ancestral examples, as well as his own personal impulses, urged young Thomas to early participation in the cause of Virginia when threatened with invasion. Born at Norfolk in 1845, and educated at the Norfolk military academy, he was living with his parents at Richmond when the war broke out. At the age of sixteen he joined the Jefferson Davis Guards, an organization of devoted young men formed as a bodyguard for the president. This company was assigned to the Twenty-fifth Virginia battalion, and he served with this command until the close of the war. During the defense of Richmond in the fall of 1864, he was in the garrison which bravely defended Fort Harrison, north of the James river, against two corps of the enemy, until forced to abandon the works. Immediately afterward he participated in the defense of Fort Gilmer, before which the exultant Federal army was driven back with great loss, practically terminating the advance of Butler's army against Richmond. At Fort Davis Mr. Thomas also served gallantly. In a fight at Aiken's landing, on the James river, he received a wound in the head.
