|
|
 1825 - 1914 (89 years)
-
| Name |
Walter Coles |
| Birth |
12 Aug 1825 |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
11 Nov 1914 |
| Person ID |
I25509 |
Bob Juch's Tree |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
-
| Notes |
- Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume V
Name: Thomas Jordan Coles (cont.)
Captain Walter (2) Coles, son of Hon. Walter (1) and Lettice P. (Carrington) Coles, was born August 12, 1825, died November 11, 1914. He was educated at Benjamin Hallowel's celebrated school at Alexandria, Virginia, and at the University of Virginia. He entered into the practice of law, but the declining health of his father and mother made it necessary for him to abandon his chosen profession to assume the responsibilities of the management of the Coles Hill estate. With the breaking out of the war between the states he was assigned to a high position in the quartermaster's department with the rank of captain, having charge of much government property and large sums of money. Evidence of the faithfulness of his war record is evinced by personal letters which he had in his possession addressed to Captain Walter Coles, from Quarter Master-General A. C. Myers, Major-General James G. Paxton and Major Johnson. Just before the close of the war he was commissioned to furnish the army of General Lee with all necessary horses but before he could assume charge of this position together with its promotion in rank the surrender came. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic conventions which met in Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore, Maryland. In 1869-71 he was a member of the Virginia state legislature, and although he was urged to again become a candidate for re-election, he refused, pleading pressing duties and private responsibilities. For many years after the close of the civil war he was a member of the Democratic committee of Pittsylvania, and during the reconstruction period he worked tirelessly to restore the South to its former high standard and to secure white supremacy in place of ignorant dominion. In public office, in private business transactions, in all occasions of life causing contact with his fellow-men his actions were marked by unfaltering honor and an integrity that left no room for doubt or question. He resided on the home plantation, Coles Hill, Pittsylvania county, Virginia, and despite the weight of almost ninety years took an active interest in the affairs of the day and the home acres. At his death there passed away a splendid type which will soon disappear from our land, a man, a noble gentleman and devoted churchman, a lifelong resident of the county who filled a large and honorable place in its history, full of years and the recipient of the regard and esteem of his countrymen.
He married, in 1862, Lavinia Catherine Jordan, born in Luray, Page county, Virginia, August 3, 1833, died January 20, 1906, daughter of Gabriel and Elizabeth Ann (Sibert) Jordan. Her father, born in 1792, died in 1862, was a patriotic citizen, devoting his life to the improvement of the section of the country in which he lived; a man of many affairs, who had accumulated considerable wealth at the outbreak of the war between the states. Her father fitted out a cavalry company at his own expense, her youngest brother, Macon, being made captain; it being known as Jordan's Cavalry. Her maternal grand-uncle, a Mr. Withers of South Carolina, served with distinction on the staff of General Sumpter. Her Jordan ancestors were of English origin and related to the Washingtons of England. Her grandfather, Thomas Jordan, fought in the revolution, associated with the Marquis De Lafayette. In a letter written years afterward, in 1824, to her father, Gabriel Jordan, of Luray, Virginia, the Marquis De Lafayette regrets his inability to visit him, "The worthy son of my gallant old Comrade in arms, Thomas Jordan." Her brother, Francis, was a captain on General Beauregard's staff. Her brother, Colonel Gabriel Jordan, was a prominent railroad man in the South, being at different times vice-president and general manager of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and the Houston & Texas Central Railroad.
Her eldest brother, General Thomas Jordan, for whom Thomas Jordan Coles was named, was a West Point graduate in 1840, two of his classmates having been General U. S. Grant and William T. Sherman, the latter having been his room-mate. General Thomas Jordan entered service at once and early distinguished himself in Florida in the Seminole uprising, 1841 to 1843. While still a lieutenant he served in the Mexican war, his company with three others being the first battalion to cross the Rio Grande, as a cover to the crossing of General Taylor's whole army into Mexico. Later, he was made captain on General Taylor's staff and was assigned to the quartermaster's department, and finally, owing to the illness of his senior, he had charge of all the quartermaster's arrangements, and was the last American soldier to leave the soil of Mexico. His efficiency in this service was especially mentioned by General Twiggs, the commander at Vera Cruz. From 1852 to 1860 he served on the Pacific coast during the suppression of an Indian insurrection in the present state of Washington. In May, 1861, under a sense of superior obligation, he resigned his commission in the United States army and offered his sword and life to his native state, Virginia. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel on the staff of General Phillip St. George Cocke. Colonel Jordan became convinced of the strategic importance of Manassas Junction and the critical necessity of immediately occupying it in force. He successfully commended the movement to General Lee, by whom Colonel Jordan was complimented in a personal letter and assigned as adjutant-general of the forces which were thereupon ordered to assemble there. On June 3rd General Beauregard took command and on July 21st the first battle of Manassas or Bull Run was fought. After the battle Colonel Jordan suggested to General Beauregard that the Federal surgeons be released without parole to which General Beauregard acceded, this being the first time in war that an enemy's surgeons were thus treated as non-combatants. During the Shiloh and Corinth campaigns Colonel Jordan was the adjutant-general of the Confederate army, and then promoted a brigadier-general.
In 1869 General Jordan consented to direct the revolutionary forces of Cuba and was commissioned by the Cuban government commander-in-chief. The odds against him in that campaign are now well known. Spain valued his services against her one hundred thousand dollars which she placed upon his head. General Beauregard in his history pronounced General Thomas Jordan as one of the ablest military organizers living. After the civil war and prior to his services in Cuba, General Jordan had been for a time editor of the "Memphis Appeal." After his return from Cuba to New York he founded the "Financial and Mining Record," and was recognized as an authority on the silver question. General Thomas Jordan was born 1819 in Luray, Virginia, died in New York City, 1895.
Children of Walter (2) and Lavinia Catherine (Jordan) Coles: 1. Walter (3), born July 25, 1863; manager of the Coles Hill farm; married Miss Wooding, of Virginia, and has a son, Walter (4). 2. Russell Jordan, born December 31, 1865, for twenty-five years identified with the tobacco trade of Danville, Virginia. 3. Agnes Cabell, born April 17, 1868; married Edward B. Ambler, of Monroe, Virginia. 4. Lettice Carrington, born September 17, 1870, died in 1882, aged twelve years. 5. Harry Carrington, born February 26, 1873; living in New York City, connected with the United States civil service; married Miss Marshall, of Fauquier county, Virginia, a great-granddaughter of Chief Justice Marshall. 6. Thomas Jordan, of whom further.
|
|
|
