U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Waggoner, Andrew Jr. (1779-1863) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Aler's History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia by F. Vernon Aler, 1888 Printed for the Author by The Mail Publishing Company, Hagerstown, MD. CHAPTER VIII. Historical Pen Sketches of the Early Residents of Berkeley County by the late Hon. Chas. James Faulkner. Pages 129-131, MAJOR ANDREW WAGGONER, JR. Son of Major Andrew Waggoner, of Revolutionary memory, was born near Bunker Hill, in the County of Berkeley, on the 24th of October, 1779. I have no information of his occupations and employments in early life. He was elected a member of the House of Delegates from this county, 1811. When war was declared in June 1812, by the United States against Great Britain, all the heroic qualities of his nature, and which he had so largely inherited from his gallant father, promptly developed themselves. He first volunteered as a private, soon was promoted to a captaincy, and then commissioned as a major of infantry. He was on Craney Island, in command of a battalion of the 4th Reg. of Va. Infantry, when the attack upon that Island was made by a combined military and naval British force, on the 22nd of June 1813, and although from the successful operations of the Artillery in repelling the attack, both by land and water, the infantry was not called into action, yet, all were impressed with the daring courage, and animated by the noble patriotism which he displayed on that occasion. He had to an extraordinary degree, the confidence of those under his command. Popular in his manners — frank and manly in his bearing — decisive in his movements — with a face beaming with intrepidity and devotion to his country, he was the idol of the soldiery. No one doubted, had the enemy reached the Island, how gallantly he would have borne himself amidst the storm of battle. After the war he removed from the County of Berkeley, to the vicinity of Point Pleasant, in Mason County, Virginia, to take possession of some valuable land on the Ohio River, in that county, which had been granted to his father in consideration of his Revolutionary service. He was elected a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia, from the County of Mason in 1836. He soon became as great a favorite among the members of the Legislature, as he had been among the soldiers. All local measures for the benefit of his constituents were carried without opposition and almost by acclamation. It being understood that he was on Craney Island, during that battle, a resolution was introduced into the body, without his knowledge, to vote him some signal honor for his assumed services in that conflict. But he promptly put a stop to the intended compliment by saying: "It is true I was on that Island during the attack; but my command was not called into action. The artillery did the work, and I cannot be the instrument of robbing Major Faulkner who had supreme command of the artillery, of the honor and merit which belong to him." After this frank and manly declaration, all further proceedings in his honor, were dropped. His estate was contiguous to Point Pleasant, the county seat of Mason, and he was almost a daily visitor of that interesting and old fashioned Virginia town. No man in the county was more generally loved and respected, and none whose sudden death was more universally lamented. He was killed on the 30th of March 1863, by a fire from a detachment of Federal soldiers, stationed in that neighborhood, as he was passing from the town to his farm. His son, Charles B. Waggoner, was a member of the recent Constitutional Convention of this State, and now holds an important office in the county. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Berkeley County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/berkeley/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------