Col. Robert Enoch Withers, 1868 Virginia

Col. Robert Enoch Withers. Birth: Sep. 18, 1821
Death: Sep. 21, 1907

He was a US Senator. During his life time he was a physician, military officer, newspaperman, politician, and diplomat. As a youth he attended private schools and earned his doctors medical degree at University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1841 while only 20 years old. He established his practice in Campbell County and in 1858 he moved to Danville, Virginia. When the Civil War started he entered the Confederate Army as the major of 18th Virginia Infantry. He was promoted to colonel and commanded the regiment until debilitating wounds forced his retirement. He was then appointed to an administrative position as commander of the military post at Danville and remained as such until the end of the war. After the war he returned to Lynchburg and established a daily newspaper, the Lynchburg News. He was nominated by the Conservative Party for governor, but withdrew from the race. He was elected lieutenant governor as a democrat in 1873 and to the US Congress in 1874. He lost the 1880 bid for reelection to former Civil War general William Mahone of the Readjuster Party. President Grover Cleveland appointed him as consul at Hong Kong in 1885 and he retired in 1889 to Wytheville, Virginia where he remained until his death. (bio by: Tom Todd)