Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/839

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.
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he served in the brigade of Gen. W. H. F. Lee through the Manassas and Maryland campaigns of 1862, the Gettysburg and Bristoe campaigns of 1863, and fought from the Wilderness to the James, and in frequent battles about Richmond and Petersburg, and on the Weldon railroad, until he was taken seriously ill with erysipelas and sent to the hospital at Kittrell Springs, N. C. He was unable to return to the field during the remainder of the war, which soon came to an end, and he surrendered and was paroled at Norfolk after Appomattox. Without resources for continuing his studies, he engaged in farming two years and then entered the Richmond college of medicine, where he was graduated in 1868. He at once embarked in the practice of his profession at Chuckatuck, where he has since continued with gratifying success. In addition to his professional work he manages his estate, consisting of two large farms in Nansemond county. The prosperity which has attended his career and the esteem in which he is held are each well deserved by the patriotism and manly virtues of his character. Walter Butts, the only brother of Dr. Butts, served as a lieutenant in the Ninth Virginia infantry from the beginning of the war to the battle of Gettysburg, where he was stricken down as he reached the Federal breastworks on Cemetery ridge, and died in hospital two days later. He was a student of medicine, preparing for college, when he enlisted in the army. Dr. Butts was married in 1865 to Hattie C., daughter of Richard H. V. Denson, of Nansemond county, and they have three children living: Charlotte A., wife of Henry Powell, of Norfolk; Georgia and Ruby.

James A. Buxton, a loyal North Carolinian, who gave over two years of his youth to the Confederate service, and is now a resident of Newport News, Va., was born in Northampton county, N. C., January 10, 1845. His father, Thomas A. Buxton, who died in 1856, was a native of Norfolk, Va., of English descent, and his mother, Mildred Perry Buxton, was born in North Carolina. He was educated at the academy of Prof. Benjamin E. Peele, a patriotic and gallant man, who closed his school when the war broke out and served in the Confederate service until he fell at Malvern Hill. On account of his youth, Mr. Buxton was kept at home during the years of 1861 and 1862, but during this time he manifested his soldierly instincts by organizing and drilling a company of boys, who elected him as their captain. In January, 1863, he entered the service as a member of Company H, Second North Carolina cavalry, Col. Sol Williams, brigade of W. H. F. Lee, Stuart's cavalry division, army of Northern Virginia. He joined his regiment in camp in Essex county, Va., and his first service was in a raid toward Gloucester Point. In the famous battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863, he acted as a sharpshooter, and was struck by a spent ball but was not seriously hurt. Soon after this he was detailed as a courier attached to the headquarters of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, and in this capacity he served during the raid through Maryland and Pennsylvania, which ended at Gettysburg. During this campaign he participated in the capture of a Federal train of 190 wagons within sight of the capitol at Washington. Through the winter of 1863-64 he acted as a member of the regimental band, and early in 1865 he was detailed as a member of the brigade provost guard. His command was disbanded at Dan-