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Giles County
Obituaries
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William W. George
Comrade William Worth George, than whom no more gallant soul ever wore the gray or drew his sword beneath the stars and bars, was born in Giles County, Va., November 7, 1839; and answered the last roll call from his beautiful home at Broadford, Smythe County, Va., June 13, 1913. The best blood of the Old Dominion flowed in his veins. The Georges were of Protestant Irish extraction. They were among the first settlers of Southwester Virginia; they have ever been men of affairs in business and have been honored by their countrymen. His grandmother was Rebecca Clay, first cousin of Henry Clay. He was well educated in the old field schools of Virginia and the Confederate army, where he learned to think, when the cause for which he fought so gallantly and the lives of the men under his care hung in the balance.
At the call of his country in 1861 Comrade George promptly entered the Confederate army as a private, and through his ability and courage on the field he was promoted to second lieutenant of company H, 26th Virginia Battalion, commanded by Col. George M. Edgar. At Cold Harbor, in 1864, after a hand-to-hand struggle in which Lieutenant George received a ball in his neck and a bayonet thrust in his side, he was left for dead. Becoming a prisoner of war, he was held till June 1865, and was one of the immortal six hundred commissioned officers who were placed on Morris Island, S.C., under the heavy cross-fire of Federals and Confederates from Fort Wagner. He escaped, but was recaptured.
Like many of his comrades, after the war he began life with nothing but a sublime manly courage. He became a farm hand at $15 per month. But he did not stay at the bottom. At his death he owned about three miles of rich valley land on the North Fork of Holston River, a large farm in Tazewell County, Va., and was President of the Saltville Bank. He was supervisor of his county for a number of years, and in 1902-03 represented the counties of Smythe and Bland in the House of Delegates of Virginia. But, best of all, Comrade George was a modest, retiring, yet a true and faithful Christian. In 1866, under the ministry of an old comrade, Rev. J. T. Frazier, he was happily converted to God, and ever afterwards was faithful to his God and his Church.
On September 27, 1866, he was happily married to Miss Mary E. Roberts, of Smythe County, Va., and became the father of six children, four of whom went before him. Two sons remain who, I am glad to say, are not “degenerate sons of an illustrious sire.” Having lived uprightly, he died without a cloud on the horizon of his hopes. Because of his removal from the world the earth is poorer, but heaven is richer. He was good in all of the relations of life - a good son, a good husband, a good father, a good soldier, a good citizen, and a good Christian. We shall miss him, sadly miss him, but we shall meet again at the general roll call. (From a sketch by his comrade, Rev. George D. French)
(Source: Confederate Veteran. Pg 37, January 1914. Vol. XXII, No. 1 - Submitted by Linda Rodriguez)
