was a participant in the Seven Days' campaign, Malvern Hill, and the many battles which followed throughout the four years' war. On the 19th of June, 1864, when fighting against the advance of Grant before Petersburg, he was severely wounded and disabled for further service. After the close of hostilities and recovery from his wound he resumed the occupation which he had entered previous to the war, renewing a partnership which he had formed in the manufacture of tobacco. He has met with remarkable success, his firm now producing eight or nine hundred pounds annually, and doing a great export business. Mr. Watson is a member of A. P. Hill camp, United Confederate Veterans and cherishes the memories of the heroic era in which he did the duty of a brave soldier. He has two sons grown to manhood, John Watson, an attorney at law, and Robert L. Watson, Jr., foreman of the works. His daughter, Annie, is the wife of John Herbert Claiborne, of Petersburg.
Colonel James W. Watts, of Lynchburg, was born in Bedford county, in 1833, the son of Richard D. Watts, a native of the same county, who was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died in 1848, at the age of fifty-two years. Colonel Watts passed his youth at the family home, and was engaged in farming when the war broke out. In April, 1861, he entered the service as first lieutenant of Company A of the Second Virginia cavalry. In the following August, for meritorious service, he was promoted captain, and served in that rank until May, 1862, when at the reorganization of the army, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. In this capacity he acted with the Second cavalry until he was disabled by wounds received in the action at Aldie in July, 1863. Upon his recovery, a month later, he was assigned to the command of the military post at Liberty, Va., where he remained until the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia. He then started to join General Johnston, and reported to General Frye at Augusta, Ga., at that place was paroled when further resistance was evidently useless. The list of battles in which he was engaged reveals a record of which the bravest of soldiers might well be proud. He participated in the early actions of Vienna, Manassas and Flint Hill; then with Jackson in the valley, fought at Front Royal, Newtown, Winchester, Hall Town, Rude's Hill, Strasburg, Cross Keys, and Port Republic; took part in the Seven Days of bloody struggle before Richmond; again on the plains of Manassas fought at Cedar Mountain, Bristoe Station, Groveton, and the Second Manassas, and subsequently fought at Occoquan, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, White Oak Swamp, Brandy Station, Aldie, Winchester (1864), and Lynchburg (1864). He was slightly wounded in an affair at Little Washington in the Valley campaign, at the Second Manassas battle received eight saber cuts, and at both Occoquan and Aldie was severely wounded. After the end of the struggle he returned to Bedford county, and soon afterward removed to Lynchburg, and embarked in the hardware trade. This he conducted successfully until 1887, when he retired from active business. In 1895 he was chosen vice-president of the National exchange bank of Lynchburg, and in January, 1896, was elected president, but retired in the following year. In 1854 Colonel Watts was married in Appomattox county to Mary E., daughter
