U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Brookfield, Rayner (b. 1844) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Men of West Virginia, Volume II Biographical Publishing Company George Richmond, Pres.: C. R. Arnold, Sec'y and Treas. Chicago, Illinois, 1903 Pages 517-519 CAPT. RAYNER BROOKFIELD, a well known citizen of Smithfield, Wetzel County, West Virginia, and a survivor of the Civil War, was born July 20, 1844, at Newbern, North Carolina, and is a son of John A. and Jane (Butler) Brookfield, the former of whom was a native of New Jersey and the latter of North Carolina. John A. Brookfield, the father of our subject, was the commander of a merchant vessel engaged in a coastwise trade between New York and the West Indies. His life was one of adventure. He served in the War of 1812 on an American privateer and was captured by the British and confined on a prison ship until the close of hostilities. He is supposed to have been lost in the wreck of his vessel, the "Planet," off Cape Hatteras, at about the age of 62 years. His wife died in 1864, during an epidemic of yellow fever, aged 60 years. The five children of the family were: Rachel, a resident of Newbern, North Carolina; Jacob, who was killed in 1864, at the age of 26, at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, being captain of Company D, 5th North Carolina Regiment; Harriet, who married Capt. H. O. Brown, a civil engineer at Newbern, North Carolina; Rayner, of this sketch; and John, who resides in Texas. Captain Brookfield was reared in North Carolina and was educated in private schools and in Newbern Academy. When the Civil War broke out, he was clerking in a local store. His brother was made captain of the company and our subject, then but 16 years of age, determined to enter it for army service, but he was not permitted to regularly enlist until March, 1862. He was made sergeant-major on the same day and in June of the same year was made 2nd lieutenant and a few months later was commissioned captain of Company C, 5th North Carolina Regiment. Although no doubt the youngest officer of that rank in the Confederate Army, his ability and gallantry made the "Boy Captain" known through every regiment. He participated in many of the fiercest battles of the war from Bull Run to Appomattox, and suffered severely. Until he was wounded first at Seven Pines, he served under General Johnston; afterwards he served under General Lee to the close of the war. At Cold Harbor he received a minie ball in the shoulder, which he carried seven years before the surgeons were able to extract it, but his most serious wound was on the terrible day at Spottsylvania, May 11, 1864, his brother being killed on the following day, when a minie ball so shattered his left knee that it was found necessary to amputate the leg the same day. He had been taken prisoner, was sent to Washington and there it was found that the hasty field operation had to be gone over again, when three inches more were removed. The brave boy captain was then sent to a Philadelphia hospital and later was confined for six months in the Seminary Hospital at Georgetown. At the close of the war, Captain Brookfield returned to North Carolina and was appointed register of deeds of Craven County, and served in that capacity until April, 1868. After a few months in Washington, D. C., engaged in a mercantile line, he went to Fauquier County, Virginia, and engaged in farming from 1870 to 1884, in the latter year moving to Salisbury, North Carolina, and in 1895 removing to Smithfield. He became bookkeeper for Mr. Smith and had charge of the post office. In 1898 he became bookkeeper in the Bank of Smithfield and has been engaged in this line ever since. Captain Brookfield has many friends and a host of old comrades who delight to tell of his youthful bravery. While in the hospital Captain Brookfield became acquainted with A. J. Smith, an officer of the Confederate Army, and accompanied the latter to his pleasant and hospitable home in Fauquier County, Virginia, meeting there the estimable sister of his host, Mary B. Smith, who, on April 20, 1870, became his wife. The five children born to Captain and Mrs. Brookfield are: Emma, the widow of Prof. John N. Carroll, of Caldwell, Texas; Mary Baker, at home; John William, a resident of Pine Grove, West Virginia: Inez Parker, a teacher in the Smithfield schools; and Paul Virginia. In politics Captain Brookfield has always been identified with the Democratic party. The family belong to the Presbyterian Church. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Wetzel County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/wetzel/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------