Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/815

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.
757

Baptist church. In 1894 he was married to Miss Sallie Owen, daughter of Rev. A. E. Owen, D. D., of Portsmouth, formerly in the Confederate States service.

Colonel John M. Brockenbrough was, in June, 1861, in command of his own regiment, the Fortieth Virginia and Cook's battery at Mathias Point on the Potomac. In concert with Col. (afterward brigadier-general) George E. Pickett, he was charged with the defense of the Rappahannock. On April 20, 1862, when the Federal forces appeared before Fredericksburg, Field's brigade, to which Brockenbrough's regiment was attached, had quite a spirited skirmish with the enemy before falling back. During the Seven Days' battles Colonel Brockenbrough was actively engaged at Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill and Frayser's Farm. He participated also in the campaign against Pope, ending with the defeat of that general at Second Manassas and Ox Hill. At the last named battle Brockenbrough commanded the brigades of Branch and Field. Generals Lee and Jackson, in their reports, spoke in high terms of the gallant fighting of these troops under the leadership of Brockenbrough. During the Maryland campaign Colonel Brockenbrough was still in command of Field's brigade and in A. P. Hill's division of Jackson's corps participated in the capture of Harper's Ferry and in the bloody battle of Sharpsburg. At Fredericksburg he still had command of a brigade and again at Chancellorsville, after the wounding of Heth. At Gettysburg he commanded the Second brigade of Heth's division in the corps of A. P. Hill and had a hand in the first day[s victorious battle, which drove the enemy through Gettysburg to the heights beyond. After the Pennsylvania campaign Colonel Brockenbrough was placed on detached duty and served the Confederacy in other fields of duty.

Henry Laurence Brooke, a prominent lawyer of Richmond, born in Stafford county in 1808, died in 1874, was a son of John Taliaferro Brooke, twin brother of Francis T. Brooke, judge of the supreme court of appeals of Virginia. Elder brothers of the latter were Dr. Lawrence Brooke, surgeon of the "Bon Homme Richard," under Capt. John Paul Jones, and [wikipedia:Robert_Brooke_(Virginia)|Robert Brooke]], governor of Virginia in 1794. The father of these distinguished sons was Richard Brooke, son of Edmond Brooke, who came to Virginia from England with Gov.-Gen. Alexander Spottiswood in 1715, and served with the governor in his famous reconnoissance beyond the Alleghanies. He was one of those who received on their return the decoration which led to the members of the expedition being subsequently designated as the "Knights of the Golden Horse-Shoe." Henry Laurence Brooke married Virginia Tucker, sister of John Randolph Tucker and Beverly Tucker, the latter of whom was consul to Liverpool during the administration of President Buchanan, and subsequently was an adherent and personal friend of the Emperor Maximilian, of Mexico. The father of this family was Henry St. George Tucker, president of the supreme court of appeals of Virginia, son of St. George Tucker, who held the same high judicial function and by his marriage to Fannie Bland, became the stepfather of John Randolph of Roanoke, who traced his descent through his mother to the royal blood of England and through his father to the Indian princess Pocahontas. The families of Tucker and Brooke were loyal to Virginia in her hour of trial, and faithfully supported the Confed-