Lynchburg he was honored for several years by his fellow citizens with the office of alderman. He is a member of R. E. Lee camp, of Richmond. Three brothers of Mr. Freeman participated in the Confederate service: Stephen M. Freeman, who served as a private in Company A of the Second Virginia cavalry, and died from a fall from a horse at the battle of Manassas, July, 1861; Gustavus A. Freeman, who served as a private in Company E of the Thirty-fourth Virginia infantry, and died of camp fever in 1862; and John. R. Freeman, a private of the Thirteenth Virginia infantry, who now resides at Amherst, Va.
Frederick J. Friedlin, a well-known merchant of Portsmouth, who was identified with the gallant record of the Virginia Defenders, is a native of Switzerland, born at Basel, August 10, 1841. His parents, John H. and Elizabeth (Hunzecker) Friedlin, came to Portsmouth with their family in 1854, settling at Portsmouth, where the father was a victim of the yellow fever scourge of 1855, the mother surviving until February 8, 1895. Their family consisted of seven sons and two daughters, and three of the sons, John H., Adolphus, and Frederick J., served in the armies of the Confederacy, the second named giving his life for the cause at the battle of Frayser's Farm. In 1858 Frederick J. Friedlin entered the military service of the State as a member of the Portsmouth National Grays, which was on duty during the John Brown affair, and went into active service under the governor's orders of April 20, 1861. Soon after the muster he was detailed for duty as an engineer in the railway shops at Portsmouth, in which he continued until the evacuation, when he became a private in the Virginia Defenders, a company which had been organized on the night of April 20, 1861, and subsequently attached to the Sixteenth infantry regiment as Company C. After an uneventful camp life at Norfolk, the company joined Mahone's brigade of Anderson's division, A. P. Hill's corps, of the army of Northern Virginia, and with the regiment was quartered on the Rapidan river, guarding a railroad bridge, until the battle of Seven Pines, when the command moved to Richmond and participated in the Seven Days' battles. Private Friedlin shared this fighting and was subsequently engaged at Second Manassas, at Crampton's Gap, Md. (where the company was particularly distinguished in the gallant stand made against overwhelming odds), at Sharpsburg, at Fredericksburg, and at Gettysburg. On the retreat from Gettysburg he was captured, July 5th, and was held at Fort McHenry and Fort Delaware as a prisoner of war until September, 1863, when he made a daring escape from the Federal prison, and succeeded in reaching Virginia in safety. His prison confinement had ruined his health, and it was not until the war was near its close that he was able to serve in the field, and his services were then of no avail. In October, 1863, he began a grocery business on a small scale at Portsmouth, with a capital of $75, and, meeting with success, in later years he conducted both a retail and wholesale trade. In 1890 he turned this over to his sons, who have since conducted a wholesale grocery establishment on the foundation he had laid. He then established a general or department store at Portsmouth, and is now conducting an extensive and successful business. He is popular both in business and social circles, has served four years in the city council, is a director of the Metropolitan building and
