Roscoe Dabney Chesterman, 1865

Roscoe Dabney Chesterman (1849 – 1901) was my great-great-grandfather.The black and white image adjacent to the photo is a copy of the back of the photo card. Roscoe was the son of Edwin Henry Chesterman and Mary Catherine Jenkins. Born in Hanover County, Virginia, his family moved to Richmond, Henrico County prior to 1860. Roscoe was named for his maternal uncle, Roscoe Dabney Jenkins, a newspaper reporter.
On November 28, 1863, he followed the example of his father and brothers and joined the local defense troops, Company G, Third Regiment, C. S. A. under Colonel J. A. McAnorny and Captain E. S. Gay. He stated his age as sixteen but he was actually only fourteen. Though this was probably a boy's unit that would not have seen action, he was paroled at Burkeville, Virginia on April 23rd, indicating that he had moved west with Lee's army and was probably involved in combat along the way.

This photograph is dated August 11th, 1865, at which time Roscoe had finally turned sixteen.

The 1866 records for Richmond College (now the University of Richmond) list Roscoe as studying Latin, French, English and mathematics.

In June of 1872, Roscoe married Miss Mary “Mollie” Washington Bolton.
The U.S. Census for 1880 has transcribed his name as "Charterman."