WAR HISTORY.
The war history of the College and its Professors and sons is and must remain very imperfect. It is impossible for the writer to gather up the scattered threads of this history. No approximate estimate can be given of the number who went into military service, nor of the casualties which befell them. That many of them were killed and wounded and many died of sickness is well known.
Six Randolph-Macon men were enrolled in one company, and the casualties which befell these are here given from actual data. Whether this is a fair sample of the rest is not known with certainty. There is no reason why it should not be assumed as a fair average.
In Company G, Eighteenth Virginia Regiment, Army Northern Virginia, the following casualties occurred, viz.:
Richard Irby, class of 1844, first lieutenant and captain, wounded twice at Second Manassas, 1862.
Samuel Hardy, class of 1846, first lieutenant, lost an arm and disabled at Gaines' Mill, 1862.
Richard Ferguson, class of 1858, first lieutenant (and adjutant of the regiment, 1863), wounded at Gaines' Mill, Frazier's Farm, Second Manassas, and captured inside the cemetery wall at Gettysburg; in prison to the close of the war.
Edward H. Muse, class of 1861, second lieutenant, wounded at Frazier's farm, Gettysburg, and Sailor's Creek.
Anthony Dibrell Crenshaw, class of 1858, third lieutenant, killed at
Five Forks, 1865, and buried on the field.
Benjamin I. Scott, class of 1860, corporal, killed near Boonsboro, Md., 1862, and left on the field.
The writer can give the history and portraits of these, because he had the honor to command the company in which they served, and preserved their records and portraits.
The College premises were occupied after the close of the war for some time by the Federal forces. The main building was used as headquarters of the Freedman's Bureau, and the rooms filled with the "wards of the nation." The damage done to the property was assessed at about five thousand dollars, which is unpaid to this day, and will doubtless so remain to the end of time.
This closes the ante-bellum record.
[Illustration: OFFICERS COMPANY G, EIGHTEENTH VIRGINIA REGIMENT. No. 1.
Captain Richard Irby. No. 2. Lieut. Richard Ferguson. No. 3. Lieut. S.
Hardy. No. 4. Lieut. E. H. Muse. No. 5. Lieut. A. D. Crenshaw. No. 6.
Corpl. B. I. Scott.]