Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/584

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552
CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ond lieutenant; in December, 1863, to first lieutenant, and from September 30, 1864, until General Lee’s surrender, April 9, 1865, he was in command of his company. In January, 1865, he was recommended for promotion to the rank of captain. He also served a portion of 1863 as adjutant and quartermaster, and was for a time on the staff of Major-General Pickett. Among the engagements in which he participated were the skirmishes around Suffolk and Franklin, Va., and in eastern North Carolina around Kinston, New Bern and Washington, and the battles of Drewry’s Bluff, Bermuda Hundred and all the cavalry fighting on General Lee s right, from May, 1864, to the surrender, including Reams Station, Hatcher’s Run, Five Forks, Sailor s Creek, Farmville and Appomattox. He was wounded, September 30, 1864, at Poplar Spring church, and again, April 5th, near Farmville, Va., and on April 9, 1865, the last day of battle for the army of Northern Virginia, he had his horse killed under him while leading the last charge made by any of Lee’s forces. At Appomattox, as senior officer present, he had command of the cavalry brigades of Generals Roberts and Barringer, and signed the paroles for the remnants of the two brigades. After his return to North Carolina, in April, 1865, he located in Catawba county, N. C., and engaged in merchandising until 1868, when he removed to Wayne county and engaged in farming. In 1871 he returned to his native county and engaged in the lumber business. In the fall of 1872 he was elected sheriff and served one term. In 1874 he was elected to represent his county in the State legislature and again in 1878. In 1876 he was elected by the people as a member of the board of county commissioners and again in 1880. In 1885 he moved to Smithfield and engaged in the hardware business. In 1888 he was again called to serve the people, as county treasurer, to which office he was elected for three terms. In January, 1868, he was married to Miss Sarah M. Cox, of Wayne county, who died in 1871. In 1874 he married Miss Jane Gaston Sneed, by whom he has four children: Stephen Sneed, the present editor of the Smithfield Herald; Ethel Jane, Richard Rowan and William Norman. Captain Holt is descended from a patriotic North Carolina family. His only living brothers, Lieut. William N. Holt, of the Fifty-fifth North Carolina regiment, and Sergt. John W. Holt, of the Six-