Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of Captain Robert Flournoy DENNIS ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , April 1999 ************************************************************************** Confederate Military History, Extended Edition, Vol. III, West Virginia, by. Col. Robert White et al, copyright 1899 by Confederate Publishing Company, reprinted 1987 by Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC. pg. 180-181 Captain Robert Flournoy Dennis, late of Lewisburg, Va., a devoted friend of the Southern cause, was born in Charlotte county, Va., September 18, 1823, the son of Col. William H. Dennis, for many years a member of the Virginia senate, and president of that body. He was graduated at Washington college with first honors in 1845, studied law at the university of Virginia, and in 1849 embarked in the practice at Lewisburg. He served eight years as prosecuting attorney in the counties of Greenbrier, Pocahontas and Fayette, and attained great prominence as a lawyer. At the outbreak of the war he organized the first company of volunteer infantry which entered the Confederate army from Greenbrier county, and in command of this company was ordered to Harper's Ferry, where he was attached to the Twenty- seventh regiment, Virginia volunteers, of T. J. Jackson's brigade, afterward known as the Stonewall brigade. He commanded his company in the first battle of Manassas, in the Romney expedition and the battle of Kernstown. Under the act of Congress reorganizing the army, Cap- tain Dennis was exempted by age from active service, and he accepted a position in the transportation depart- ment, in which he served until June, 1864, when he was captured by a Federal command at Crow's Tavern, in Alleghany county. He was subsequently held as a pris- oner of war at Camp Chase, Ohio, until February, 1865. Resuming his law practice as soon as possible after the war, he continued in this profession until his death in October, 1897. From 1876 to 1884 he served with dis- tinction in the State senate, the greater part of the time as chairman of the judiciary committee, also as chair- man of the commission for the revision of the West Vir- ginia statutes.