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Capt. Thomas Stephen Preston died at Leesburg, Va., April 6, 1920, at the ripe age of seventy-nine years. Born in Bedford County, Va., August 25, 1840, the son of Pleasant and Annis Davis Preston, he moved to Lynchburg with his parents as a boy and for many years resided there. At the outbreak of the War between the States he left the University of Virginia as a student and enlisted in the Lynchburg Home Guard, participating in the first battle of Bull Run, in which his company distinguished itself under its commander, Capt. Samuel Garland, who was in Longstreet's Division. After the battle he went back to Lynchburg with his brother, Samuel D. Preston, who was detailed to form a battery of artillery, of which his brother was captain and he lieutenant. This company was ordered to Richmond immediately on its formation, but the need of infantry was so great that they were transferred to that arm of the service and sent to Yorktown in the spring of 1862. He was here again put into the artillery, in which he served until Yorktown was evacuated. He was then transferred to South Carolina, where he spent some time in the operations on the Edisto River, after which he was ordered back to Virginia and rendered distingushed service at Drewry's Bluff, where only an unaccountable error of General Whiting's prevented the capture of the entire Federal force.

During most of his service he was in General Wise's brigade and was a participant in the whole campaign of the winter of 1864-65. He was in the trenches around Petersburg during the whole investure of the city and, being then lieutenant in his brother's company, was made captain when his brother was severely wounded at the Crater. He was at Appomattox at the surrender, after which he returned to the University of Virginia, studied law, and practiced his profession for many years in Lynchburg.

In 1873 he married Nannie Elizabeth McCraw, the widow of his first cousin, Samuel S. Preston, and subsequent to he decease, in 1902, he married Rosa Lemby, of Jackson, Miss., by whom he is survived.

[Robert L. Preston, Leesburg, Va.]