Welcome to the The Prince's Dispatch, quarterly newsletter of the Major General John Bankhead Magruder Chapter of the Virginia Society of The Military Order of the Stars and Bars. The Magruder Chapter was chartered as Chapter #258 of the Virginia Society on 9 August 2000. Chapter meetings are held quarterly at a time and place announced in advance. The Chapter also gathers the second Wednesday of each month concurrently with the Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp #1722, Sons of Confederate Veterans at the Salem Library in Fredericksburg.

Raymond W. Gill Jr.

Ray Gill graduated from Fauquier High School in 1965. He worked as a technical operator building meteorological sounding rockets at Atlantic Research Corp. He enlisted in the Navy in 1966 and completed basic training in Chicago, Ill. Ray was stationed in Florida with the Naval Training Command at Pensacola. After completing several self study courses he was promoted to the avionics group where he maintained radio and navigational aids on the T-28 Trojan aircraft. In 1968 he was transferred to Master Jet Base at Cecil Field and assigned to Attack Squadron 15in Jacksonville Florida where he served as an avionics technician on the A-7 Corsair jet.

In 1969 Ray was promoted to aviation anti-submarine warfare technician and was responsible for maintaining electronic systems on the P-3 Orion submarine hunter/killer aircraft. Ray was Honorably discharged in 1970 and came to Fredericksburg and taught communications electronics at "Radio Engineering Institute" which was located on Caroline St. and later moved out on Rt. 3. Ray trained more than 2000 students.
(Editors note: I was one of the more than 2000 students of Rays at the Radio Engineering Institute graduating in October 1972, Howard Stern was also one of his students. I can say that Ray was the best instructor I ever had and I have had a bunch.)

In 1979 Ray took a position with Phillip Morris, USA in Richmond, Virginia and was group supervisor of electrical and electronics training until 1993 when he established "Performance Consultants Ltd", an organizations and management consulting firm.

Ray is keenly interested in historical research and genealogy and became a member of Scottish Clan Donald in 1995 and served as the clan's regional commissioner for Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Washington D.C. until 2004 when he was named commissioner emeritus. In 2000 he was invited to membership in the Knights Templar where he is currently a Grand Officer and the Prior of the Priory of Bannockburn.
Ray has at least 39 documented ancestors serving in the Confederate Army. He became a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, serving as chief of staff for the Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp 1722 for several years. He is also a member of the Point Lookout Prisoner of War Society with more than a dozen documented ancestors having been imprisoned there.
August 1999 Ray was instrumental in starting the Major General John Bankhead Magruder Chapter 258, Military Order of the Stars and Bars. Ray is a charter member and served as Commander for two terms. Ray is currently the Commander of the Virginia Society and councilman for the Army of Northern Virginia.

Ray is a graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology and National Radio Institute, majoring in electronic space and missile instrumentation and communications electronics. He has studied management, organizational and human resource development at the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University and American University. Ray is certified by the Project Management Institute as a Project Management Professional(PMP), Society of Human Resource Management as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), International Society for Performance Improvement as a Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), American Seminar Leaders Association as a Certified Seminar Leader (CSL), International Board of Certified Trainers as a Certified Trainer (CT), and the International Society of Certified Electronics Technicians as a Certified Electronics Technician (CET) in Communications Electronics. Ray has been a licensed General Class Amateur Radio Operator since 1975.

In addition to consulting on organizational issues, Ray conducts training sessions on a variety of technical and managerial topics for Germanna Community College and the University of Mary Washington. He was named Instructor of the year 2005 for Germanna Community College and received the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Trainer at Virginia's Community Colleges in 2006. Ray is currently pursuing a course of study in applied technology at Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey.

Ray is an amateur historian with special interest in Virginia's colonial period. He is a current member of the following hereditary societies. Order of Indian Wars in the United States, Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, United Sons of Confederate Soldiers Association, Descendants of Confederate Veterans, Order of the Southern Cross, Military Order of the Stars and Bars, Order of World War 1 and the Order of World War II

Ray and Martha have been married 40 years and have two daughters and three granddaughters. They have resided in Fredericksburg since 1970.


Alton Prison


The Alton prison opened in 1833 as the first Illinois State Penitentiary and was closed in 1860, when the last prisoners were moved to a new facility at Joliet. By late in 1861 an urgent need arose to relieve the overcrowding at 2 St. Louis prisons. On December 31, 1861, Major General Henry Halleck, Commander of the Department of the Missouri, ordered Lieutenant-Colonel James B. McPherson to Alton for an inspection of the closed penitentiary. Colonel McPherson reported that the prison could be made into a military prison and house up to 1,750 prisoners with improvements estimated to cost $2,415. The first prisoners arrived at the Alton Federal Military Prison on February 9, 1862 and members of the 13 th U.S. Infantry were assigned as guards, with Colonel Sidney Burbank commanding.

During the next three years over 11,764 Confederate prisoners would pass through the gates of the Alton Prison. Of the four different classes of prisoners housed at Alton, Confederate soldiers made up most of the population. Citizens, including several women, were imprisoned here for treasonable actions, making anti-Union statements, aiding an escaped Confederate, etc. Others, classified as bushwhackers or guerillas, were imprisoned for acts against the government such as bridge burning and railroad vandalism.

Conditions in the prison were harsh and the mortality rate was above average for a Union prison. Hot, humid summers and cold Midwestern winters took a heavy toll on prisoners already weakened by poor nourishment and inadequate clothing. The prison was overcrowded much of the time and sanitary facilities were inadequate. Pneumonia and dysentery were common killers but contagious diseases such as smallpox and rubella were the most feared. When smallpox infection became alarmingly high in the winter of 1862 and spring of 1863, a quarantine hospital was located on an island across the Mississippi River from the prison.

Up to 300 prisoners and soldiers died and are buried on the island, now under water. A cemetery in North Alton that belonged to the State of Illinois was used for most that died. A monument there lists 1,534 names of Confederate soldiers that are known to have died. An additional number of civilians and Union soldiers were victims of disease and illness. During the war several different units were assigned to serve as guards at Alton. The Thirteenth U.S. Infantry was followed by the Seventy-seventh Ohio Infantry, the Thirty-seventh Iowa Infantry, the Tenth Kansas Infantry and the One Hundred Forty-fourth

Illinois Infantry. Formed at Alton specifically to serve as prison guards, the Illinois 144th was almost completely made up of Alton area residents.

The prison closed July 7, 1865 when the last prisoners were released or sent to St. Louis. The buildings were torn down over the next decades and the land was eventually used by the city as a park named after the Joel Chandler Harris character, "Uncle Remus," from Song of the South. Stone from the prison buildings is found in walls and other structures all over the Alton area.

(source: Library of Congress archives.)





Portrait of Pvt. Edwin Francis Jemison, 2nd Louisiana Regiment, C.S.A.
CREATED/PUBLISHED [between 1860 and 1862, re-photographed 1961]


Although previously identified as Private Edwin Francis Jennison, Georgia Regiment, C.S.A., research has established that this photograph is of Private Edwin Francis Jemison, 2nd Louisiana Regiment.
He served in the Peninsula campaign under General John B. Magruder and was killed in the battle of Malvern Hill, July 1862.

(Source: Library of Congress archives.)



In the last issue, I printed a story about Masonic Burials during the War Between the States. That version stated that Major Albert Miller Lea's son died in his arms. Another version was Major Lea went looking for medical help for his son and the soldiers around him kept asking if he wanted anything.
His only reply was, "My Father is Here". He died before his father returned.

The moral of the story: On the day following Galveston's recapture, Gen. Magruder ordered a large contingent of Confederate soldiers and Union prisoners to be turned out for the hastily organized funeral for Edward Lea and the young man's commanding officer. The two men were buried together in the same grave in a spot donated by businessman George Grover. Albert Lea read the funeral service over his son's remains, closing with these words:

"Allow one so sorely tried in this his willing sacrifice to beseech you to believe that while we defend our rights with our strong arms and honest hearts, those we meet in battle may also have hearts as brave and honest as our own. We have buried two brave and honest gentlemen. Peace to their ashes; tread lightly over their graves."

There is no marker from any historical association or veteran's group for Edward Lea's grave. Instead, there is only a simple stone recording Edward's last words - "My father is here" - together with an anchor and sword. No monument has ever said more with so few words.
(Source: Library of Congress archives.)



Virginia Society of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars

International Headquarters Military Order of the Stars and Bars





Pledge of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars


"We the posterity of the Officer Corps and civil officials of the Confederacy do pledge ourselves to commemorate and honor the service of leadership these men rendered in the cause of the fundamental American principles of self-determination and states rights and to perpetuate the true history of their deeds for the edification of ourselves, our society, and for generations yet unborn."