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Reuben Manning Newman, the youngest son of James Newman, of Hilton, Orange County, Va., and the last surviving of his father's children, was born March 20, 1843, and died at the old family homestead on April 17, 1916. When the war come on in 1861, though still a schoolboy, Reuben Newman and his brothers left for Harper's Ferry on the night of April 17, the date of Virginia's ordinance of secession. He became a member of the Gordonsville Grays, Company C, 13th Virginia Infantry, of which Gen. A. P. Hill was colonel, later commanded by Col. James A. Walker (afterwards commander of the Stonewall Brigade) and by Col. James Barbour Terrell, also promoted to be brigadier general. His record as a soldier is one of those priceless heritages which his descendants to remote generations can cherish with patriotic pride. His conspicuous courage in battle, where he was several times wounded, his failing fortitude under the hardships which this famous regiment endured, his cheerful comradeship, whether on the tented or the stricken field, endeared him alike to officers and men. In the battle of first Cold Harbour he and his brother Herbert were wounded, the latter dying as a result of his wounds. His eldest brother, Wilson, was left for dead on the bloody field of Winchester; his brother Sheridan, captured at the fall of Vicksburg, survived the war, as did also his brother Stanley. His merit as a soldier won him promotion as vacancies occurred in his company, and in the latter part of the war he was commissioned aid-de-camp on the staff of Gen. George H. Steuart. In 1871 he married Miss Kate Randolph Taylor, who survives him with six daughters and one son. Another son, Sheridan, died in early manhood. In civil life Mr. Newman was held in no less esteem than as a soldier in war. As all who remember those times well know, peace had her privations as well as her "victories no less renowned the war"; these he endured and overcame with like fortitude and patience. A model citizen, he was looked up to by his neighbors for his civic example of industry, integrity, and devotion to the State. He fought a long and brave battle to restore wrecked fortunes, but disease and age and infirmity ensued; yet he did not falter nor turn back, but bore with Christian patience every trial that came. After more than threescore years and ten he "fell on sleep" like one who lies down to plesant dreams based on noble memories and illuminated by the vision of a better country and a heavenly which faith discerned beyond the earthly hosizon. W. W. S.
SOURCE: Confederate Veteran Magazine, August, 1916.
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