Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of CAPT. ROBERT F. DENNIS This biography was submitted by Sandy Spradling, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 228-229 CAPT. ROBERT F. DENNIS. Robert Flournoy Dennis, eldest son of Col. William H. and Ann (Morton) Dennis, was born in Charlotte county, Virginia, September 18, 1823; was graduated from Washington College, Lexington, Va., in 184-, and from the Law School of the Univer-sity of Virginia a year or two later; located to practice law at Rocky Mount, Va., but remained there only a few months, when he moved to Greenbrier in 1849. In the same year he married Martha Jane, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John A. North. He was a Democrat in politics and a leader of the party in this section for many years prior to the war, fighting the battles of the party against the Whigs, Greenbrier being among the Strong Whig counties; was prosecuting attorney for Greenbrier, Pocabontas and Fayette counties, holding the office at the same time, we believe, in all three counties. When the Civil war came on, in 1861, he raised the first company-the Greenbrier Rifles (Infantry)-that went into the army of the Confederacy from this county and was attached to the Twenty-seventh Virginia, Stonewall Brigade; commanded his company at Kernstown and First Manassas and was with Jackson on his terrible march, in winter, from Winchester to Romney. Upon the reorganization of the army in 1862 or 1863, he went into another branch of the service, and so continued until captured at Crow's Tavern in Alleghany county, and sent to Camp Chase, where he was held many months as a prisoner of war, until in January, 1864, when he was exchanged, and returned to the Confederate service. When the war ended he returned to Lewisburg, but because he could not and would not take the test oath he was not allowed to appear in court. He formed a partnership with Alexander Walker, who looked after their cases in court. Other lawyers who had taken part with the South were forced to take in carpetbag, Yankee partners. In 1873 Captain Dennis was nominated by the Democrats for judge of the circuit court but was defeated by H. A. Holt, of Braxton, running as an independent candidate. In 1876 Captain Dennis was elected a member of the State senate and four years later reelected, serving eight years. During his service in the senate he was chairman of the judiciary committee and one of a commission appointed to revise the code. As a lawyer Captain Dennis ranked high, as an advocate before court or jury was strong and effective, as a stump speaker he held his audience by the force of his argument and the vigor of his speech and in his best days was conceded to be one of the best campaigners in the State. Having passed his seventy-third mile-stone in the journey of life, he passed away from the scenes of the world on October 8, 1897, about two years after the death of his wife.