PROMINENT PERSONS
365
Armistead, commanded Fort McHenry,
guarding the approach to Baltimore, and
succeeded in driving away the British tieet
on the occasion when Francis Key wrote
the national song, the "Star-Spangled Ban-
ner." The flag that floated over Fort Mc-
Henry during this battle is now in the pos-
session of a member of the Armistead fam-
i!y. Gen. Walker K. Armistead, the young-
est of these brothers, was graduated in
West Point's first class in 1803, and attain-
ed distinction in the army. He was the
father of Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, the hero
of Gettysburg, who led in the charge of
Pickett's division, which for brilliancy and
daring will rank in history with McDonald's
charge at Wagram, the charge of the OM
Guard at Waterloo, and of the "light bri-
gade" at Balaklava. Years after the war, .1
portion of the Federal command that re-
pulsed Pickett erected a beautiful monu-
ment to the memory of Lewis A. Armistead,
near the spot where he fell mortally wound-
ed — a distinction never attained by any other
American soldier. Lewis' brother, Frank
Stanley Armistead, a graduate of West
Point, rose to the rank of brigadier-general
in the Confederate service, and another
brother. Captain Bowles E. Armistead, a
gallant soldier of the "lost cause." was se-
verely wounded on several hard-fought
battlefields. On his mother's side Henry B.
Armistead is connected by blood or mar-
riage with many of the foremost citizen- of
the Old Dominion, his grandfather being
Rev. Thomas Harrison, an Episcopalian
clergyman of Richmond, who was a neiir
relative of Benjamin Flarrison, signer of the:
Declaration of Independence, and father of
President W. H. Harrison. He is also re-
lated to the Fitzhughs, Carters, Lee;;.
Churchills, Taliferros, Marshalls and other
old Virginia families. After attending
school in the neighborhood of his country
home, he was sent at the age of sixteen
years to the Virginia Military Institute,
whence the Confederacy derived many of
its most distinguished ofticers. Hert- for
two years it was his privilege to be under
the instruction of Major T. J. Jackson, later
known as "Stonewall." After graduation,
young Armistead went West, and was in
the Rocky mountains when the Civil war
began. Although in feeble health he nuulc
his way South, traveling over three thou-
sand miles, a good part of the distance on
mule back, and for several hundred miles
on foot. He entered the Confederate army
as a private, was repeatedly promoted, and
continued in active service until the end of
the struggle, surrendering at Shreveport,
Louisiana, with Price's division, June 7,
1865. After the war he settled in Fort
Smith, Arkansas, and soon after moved to
Charleston, Arkansas, where he has since
lived, engaged in mercandising and farm.-
ing. In the Brooks-Baxter gubernatorial
"war" between contending political parties,
in the days of reconstruction, he was made
brigadier-general of militia, and placed in
command of all the troops in the western
part of the state. In 1877-79 he represented
his district in the state senate, and in 18S4
he was sent as a delegate to the convention
at Chicago which first nominated Mr. Cleve-
land for the presidency. He held the posi-
tion of deputy secretary of state (1889-03),
became secretary of state in 1893; was re-
elected in 1894.
Putnam, Sarah A. (Brock), born at Madi- son, Virginia, about 1840, second daughter
