PROMINENT PERSONS
191
Fort Donelson, he recruited his regiment in
southwestern \'irginia. ahnost to its full
complement. Upon its reorganization, he
was tendered the position of colonel by the
ofificers of his regiment, but declined, pre-
ferring that the old officers should retain
their places, and being willing to again
serve as major. Subsequently, however, he
became colonel, and was also commissioned
brigadier-general, but never served as such,
the commission failing to reach him because
of military movements. He was wounded,
it was thought fatally, at the battle of
Cloyd's Farm. Recovering from his injury,
he rejoined his command in the Valley of
Virginia, and participated in all of the en-
gagements in that entire campaign. After
the surrender of Gen. Lee, he refused to
accept the parole until August. 1865. when
he realized that all effort to continue the
struggle had been abandoned. Following
the war, Mr. Smith began the practice of
law in Warrenton, Virginia, being unwilling
to restime in Charleston because of the re-
quirements of the court there as to the oath
cf allegiance to the Federal government, and
because he had been indicted for treason.
He practiced at Warrenton, with the excep-
tion of a brief interval, until 1884, and for
six years of that time served as county
judge. He was also a member of the state
legislature for one term, and was chosen for
a second term. However, he became an
elector for Cleveland and Hendricks, and
was appointed by President Cleveland to
the position of United States attorney for
New Mexico, for a term of four years. On
the expiration of his term of service he re-
turned to Virginia, and became connected
with the settlement of the Virginia debt,
and was largely instrumental not only in
jireventing its repudiation, but also in secur-
i!ig its adjustment on terms creditable to
the commonwealth. He was appointed
chief justice of the territory of New Mexico,
at the beginning of Cleveland's second ad-
ministration, without solicitation, and served
out a term of four years. He then returned
tu Virginia, but did not resume the prac-
tice of law, and lived quietly at his home in
Warrenton. He married Elizabeth Fairfax,
daughter of Judge \\'illiam H. Gaines, of
Warrenton.
Rouss, Charles B., born in Frederick county. Alary land, February 11, 1836. son of Peter Hoke and Belinda (Baltzell) Rouss, and a descendant of Austrian ancestry, vari- ous members being prominent in the public affairs of the Empire, notable among whom was George Rouss, a member of the com- mon council of Kronstadt, in 1500. Peter Hoke Rouss in 1841 removed from Mary- land to Berkeley county, \^irginia, where he purchased in the Shenandoah Valley, twelve miles from Winchester, an estate to which he gave the name of Runnymede. Charles B. Rouss supplemented his public school education by attendance at the Win- chester Academy, where he was a student from the age of ten until fifteen, when he took a position as clerk in a store. Three years later he engaged in business on his own account, having accumulated sufficient capital from his earnings, and after another three years was proprietor of the most ex- tensive store in that section of the county. Upon his return from the war between the states, in which he served as a private in the Twelfth Virginia Regiment, he engaged in a mercantile business in New York City, but fniled, the result of the then general credit
