JOHN R. BAILEY, Captain
Company B, 1^st.  Virginia Reserves
Confederate States of America

Captain John R. Bailey was born on the 13^th. day of September to John and Lucy Palmer Bailey of Charlotte County, where he was raised.  In 1854 he married Molly Catherine “Kate” Bailey, a cousin, and to this union was born seven children.  John served during the War Between the States as a Captain in the Charlotte Artillery, Virginia Reserves.  He along with his “old men and boys” distinguished themselves during the Battle of Staunton River Bridge on June, 25, 1864; where Union troops were hoping to destroy this vital bridge over the Staunton River in Charlotte, thus crippling the Confederate railroad supply line between Richmond and Danville.

Photo of the 600 foot long bridge, in restored condition, now part of a walking trail at the battlefield site.

Of note here was his brother, Captain Armistead W. Bailey, who raised and commanded Company K “Keysville Guards” of the 23^rd. Regiment of Virginia Infantry, the first volunteer company formed in Charlotte County.  Armistead contracted typhoid fever while in the service and died in 1863.

After the War  John and his family settled in to a long life in service to his county and community.  He was a member of the Board of Magistrates of the county courts.  As a student of law and possessing a keen legal mind he authored most of the legal documents for his neighborhood, of which it is said hardly any were ever contested. John died quietly at Keysville on the 11^th. day of February, 1906, and was interred in the cemetery of Ash Camp Baptist Church.

Source:  CHARLOTTE COUNTY, VIRGINIA FAMILIES OF, by Dr. A. S. Priddy, ca 1910

Photo by:  Bea Adams King