The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-08-15
Soldier and Sailor.
DEATH OF COLONEL CHARLES M. FAUNTLEROY.-
SKETCH OF HIS CAREER,

Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch
BEsBURG, VA, July 20, 1889.
COLONEL CHARLES MAGILL FAUNTLERoY died
July %, 1889, in LIE. ;burg, Va, at the house of
his daughter, Mrs. ,5anet Knot Harrison. He
was the eldest son o, the late GENERAL J. T.
FAUNTLERoY, of Virgin, who resigned his com
mission as colonel of the First United States
Dragons at the call of his native State in the
spring of 1861. He was born in Winchester, Va,
August 2l 1922, at the house of his maternal
grandfather, Colonel Charles MagiIl member
OF the Winchester bar and an officer in the RevO-
IlOnafy war. He was appointed midShipman
in the United States navy in March, 1888; and,
before he was sixteen years of age he parti-
clpated in the attack which made upon the
stronghold of the Pirates in the East Indies by
party landed from the squadron under Com
modOre Read sent out for that purpose. Hewas
almost continuously on sea service for twenty
years, during which period, he was with Cap
destruction of Greytown in 1856; and he headed
volunteer party which went to search for and
as strain and his party en-
He was at the NAVAL Battery" which did such
effective and distinguished service at the bonn
Dardment OF Vera Cruz as to draw upon it the
concentrated fire from the Fortress San Juan de
olioa, and which was honorable distinguished
in the reduction of that Gheretofore) impregna-
bic stronghold.
In the spring of 1861 he was commanding a
scientific party and two vessels engaged upon
the United States Coast Survey; and upon the
secession of Virginia from the Union he prompt
~ resigned his commission as an old lieutenant
in the United States navy, and rendered his
sword and services to the invaded South. His
nrsu service was to convey heavy ship guns from
Norfolk and Richmond and put them into posi-
ton TO DEFEND Winchester and Harper'S Ferry,
He was conspicuous at the guns which repulsed
the attack of the Federal fleet upon Drewry's
Bluff, and foiled their first attempt to ascend
James river to Richmond. He was selected to
go out in the Nashville, as second in command
under Captain Pegram, from Charleston harbor,
and he brought that ship back into Beaufort har-
Dor laden with English arms and ammunition
for the Southern COnfederacy He was invited
by General Joseph E. Johnston to position on
his Staff and he was by his side in all his opera
tions from Winchester to Seven Pines. At the
first battle OF Manassas, before the smoke of the
and efficient gallantry was publicly acknowl-
edged by General Johnston, and on the Both of
september, 1867, he was commissioned Colonel
IN the confederate army at the special request
of General Johnston "a recognition of services
at the battle of Seven Pines' In January, 1868,
ne was announced by General Johnston as In
Spector-General of the Army of the West and
South he was next ordered to New Orleans to
supervise the construction of iron cladS at that
place and at Shreveport, La; whence he was or
dered by General Kirby Smith to Europe upon
secret service, which being ACCOMPLISHED he
was assigned by the commissioners Mason and
Sl1dell. to the command OF the Confederate
Calais.
Colonel Fauntleroy was married in 1s47 to
Janet, daughter of the late Thomas P. Knox,
Esq, or leesburg, Va. Her loneliness of char
acter and person is, even yet, forty years since
her death, a familiar tradition in Virginia: In
General William ii Payne, he says :-'How well
DO remember his wedding-when he appeared
queen Of beauty in all the land.''
His second wife was Sallie Souter, of Virginia,
whom he married in Paris in 1865; and who lived
or only y, few weeks after the marriage and died
in Florence Italy, on the wedding tour
His third wife was Mary Elgee, daughter of
Joseph Chambers, Esq, OF Louisiana; who, with
three daughters, survives him.
Many years ago COLONEL FAUNTLEROY united
himself with the Episcopal church in Leesburg,
under the passionate Of the Rev. R. I. Davis,
whom he greatly revered and admired; and
whose gentle, tender and faithful miniStratiOnS
during his long and painful illness prepared him
for the vast concern of the Eternal scene to
which he has gone.
In person-form and features-CoLoNELFA UNT-
LEROY was singularly graceful and elegant.
His mind, naturally strong and gifted was high
ly cultured by travel, observation, and reading; ;
and he was distinguished for fearlessness, frank
ness, and an erect, magnanimous manliness of
character.
He was preceded to the grave by his brother,
the late Dr. A. NJ: Fauntleroy, of Staunton, Va;
and surviving him, are his brother, Judge T. 7.
Fauntleroy of the Supreme Court of Appeals of
Virginia; and his sisters, Mrs. Barnes, of Wash
ingtOn city, widow of the late Surgeon General
Barnes, of the United States army, and Mrs.
WhittleSey, widow of the late Major j. ii.
Whittlesey, of the United States army.