Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/858

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

an important part in the battle, driving back the Federal advance. Lieutenant Chamberlaine sighted the gun and served the vent, with some Georgia soldiers for a gun crew, and Privates Hill and Todd, of Company F, as infantry support. So well was the gun served that General Hancock reported that two guns had been used against his line. It may truthfully be said that Lieutenant Chamberlaine's coolness and skill at this juncture, staying by his gun in the face of a hot Federal fire, in which he was himself wounded, saved the fortunes of that part of the army and made possible the effective check that McClellan received at Sharpsburg. He subsequently fought with the Sixth regiment at Fredericksburg. On December 16, 1862, he was detailed as a member of Captain Huger's battery, and after three months' service in that capacity, he was surprised by an order to report to Colonel Crutchfield as adjutant of the artillery of the Second corps. After the battle of Chancellorsville, at the reorganization which followed the death of Jackson, he became acting adjutant of artillery of the Third corps, and on October 23, 1863, he was promoted captain and assistant adjutant-general, on the staff of General Walker, chief of artillery. Third army corps. With the artillery he participated in the battles of Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, the defense of Petersburg, and the retreat to Appomattox. He was paroled at Danville about June 1, 1865, and then returned to Norfolk. Since then he has been engaged principally in banking, but for the past twenty years he has been prominent in railroad management. In 1877 he became treasurer of the Seaboard & Roanoke railroad, and still holding that position at the time of the formation of the Seaboard Air Line, he was promoted comptroller of the new system, a position he has subsequently filled. He is a member of Pickett-Buchanan camp and the Christ Episcopal church. April 21, 1864, he was married to Mattie Hughes Dillard, of Franklin county, Va., and they have three children, Mary Wilson, wife of Fergus Reid, of Norfolk; Ann Dillard, wife of Lieut. Frank W. Coe, U. S. A., and William Chamberlaine, a lieutenant in the United States army, of the West Point class of 1892. Capt. George Chamberlaine, brother of the foregoing, was born at Norfolk, July 30, 1834, and was educated at the Norfolk military academy and the Virginia military institute, being graduated at the latter school in 1853. After two years spent in the banking house of Samuel Harris & Sons, Baltimore, he became a partner in his father's bank at Norfolk, where he remained until on September 1, 1861, he entered the service of the Confederate States as commissary. He was assigned to duty at Craney island by the secretary of war, and subsequently served with the Ninth Virginia infantry, of Armistead's brigade, until after the battle of Gettysburg. After that time he was on post duty at Franklin and Burkeville, Va., until he surrendered and was paroled at Richmond in April, 1865. Since the war he has been engaged in banking at Norfolk.

Robert F. Chambers, of Petersburg, Va., entered the Confederate service in 1862 as a private in Capt. A. B. Goodwyn's company, organized at Petersburg. During a large part of his military career he performed guard duty at various places and served with fidelity in the duties assigned him. His last active participation in the great struggle was in the battle of Five Forks, where he fought