Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/959

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.
895

his own account and has met with flattering success. Still alive to the memories of the army, he maintains memberships in Lee and Pickett camps of Confederate Veterans and in the Powhatan troop association, of which he has served as treasurer. In 1866 he was married to Sarah E., daughter of the late Marlowe W. Atkinson, of Powhatan county, who died, leaving two children, Wyatt L. and Richard N. In 1874 he was married to Ann E., daughter of the late John Keese, of Charlotte county, and they have two children, John K. and Mary L.

Colonel J. Thomas Goode, a prominent artillery officer and commander of the Wise brigade at the close of the war, and who was directly in line for immediate promotion to the rank of brigadier-general, was born in Mecklenburg county, Va., July 21, 1835, and was educated at the Virginia military institute at Lexington, Va. In 1855 he was commissioned second lieutenant of artillery in the United States army and assigned to Company F, Fourth regiment, with the following company officers: Capt. John C. Pemberton, subsequently lieutenant-general C. S. A.; First Lieut. Stephen D. Lee, subsequently lieutenant-general C. S. A.; First Lieut. Gustavus A. DeRussy, subsequently colonel U. S. A., and Second Lieut. J. Thomas Goode, subsequently colonel C. S. A. With this company Lieutenant Goode served one year at Fort Hamilton, N. Y. harbor, and commanded the post for month's during a scourge of yellow fever, suffering severely with the malady himself. From there his regiment was ordered to Florida, where he performed arduous service in the Seminole war of 1856-57. With Stephen D. Lee, then first lieutenant, he waded the everglades, swam rivers, and was five days without food, excepting horse and alligators on the fifth day, fought Indians and suffered much from chills and fever, having several congestive chills. From Florida his regiment went to Kansas to suppress the John Brown rebellion. He was then promoted first lieutenant of Company A, same regiment, and went to Utah in command of Companies A and E, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's command. From Camp Floyd, Utah, he escorted several companies of emigrants to California, having repeated encounters with Indians. In 1861 he resigned his commission in the United States army to offer his services to his mother State, Virginia, and, in order to reach his home, ran the gauntlet of hostile Indians and dareknights, traveling thirteen hundred miles by private conveyance, bringing his wife and two little girls through the Indian country with no escort save one hired man, a California horse thief who boasted that he was coming east to steal horses from the Federal army for the Confederates, and vice versa. He was Hobson's choice, but proved faithful in this emergency. On reaching St. Joseph, Mo., Lieutenant Goode was offered the colonelcy of a Confederate regiment just formed, but, wishing to bring his family to Virginia, had to decline. Reporting for duty in Richmond, he was assigned to duty as chief of artillery at Yorktown with rank of major, was afterward promoted lieutenant-colonel and later full colonel. After the evacuation of Yorktown Colonel Goode was directed by Gen. R. E. Lee to take charge of the batteries around Richmond, but, finding only one small fort with four smooth bore 32-pounders mounted, he applied to have his regiment temporarily armed with rifles that it might aid in the defenses of the city. His command was in the battle of Seven