Norborne Berkeley (soldier)

Norborne Berkeley was the third son of Lewis Berkeley and Frances Callendar Noland. He was born near Aldie in Loudoun County, although his father soon built Evergreen plantation in nearby Prince William County, and moved there before 1830. His name honors the Virginia governor known as Lord Botetourt, although not an ancestor. His elder brothers who also became Confederate officers serving in the 8th Virginia Infantry Regiment (sometimes known as the "Berkeley Regiment") Lt.Col. Edmund Callendar Berkeley, who inherited Evergreen, organized the "Evergreen Guards" which became Company C in the unit, and after the war served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates and became known for philanthropic and veterans' activities, including the Manassas Peace Jubilee. Major William Noland Berkeley formed the Champe Rifles, Company D. The youngest brother, Capt. Charles Fenton Mercer Berkeley, served under his brother William N. Berkeley and was captured twice during the conflict. Their sister Mary Lewis Berkeley married Richard Smith Cox, son of the Georgetown's mayor.^[1][2] Berkeley received a private education appropriate to his class, including at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. This Norborne Berkeley entered the Virginia Military Institute and graduated in 1848.^[3]

In 1849 Berkeley married Lavinia Hart Berkeley (daughter of a distant cousin, Dr. Edmund Berkeley and granddaughter of Dr. Carter Burwell Berkeley). They had four sons who survived their father, but also moved out of state after the conflict. Their eldest, Edmund Spottswood Berkeley (b. 1859) moved to Van Vleck, Texas.^[4] Norborne Berkeley Jr. (b. 1861) moved to Pendleton, Oregon. Charles Carter Berkeley moved to Seattle, Washington. William Noland Berkeley (b. 1867) moved to Annapolis, Maryland.^{[citation needed]}

When he turned 25, his father gave him a farm "Stoke" in Loudoun County, and died not long afterward. Norborne Berkeley owned $20,000 in personal property (including 20 slaves ranging from two 70-year-old men and 7 children under 10) in 1860.^[5] Berkeley also admitted in his postwar pardon application that he inherited slaves from his father.^[6]

Before Virginia seceded from the Union in early 1861, Berkeley had been training with a local militia company in Loudoun County. Local Commonwealth's attorney Charles Tebbs had organized the unit, but had problems in maintaining discipline, relying on this Berkeley for that function. Norborne Berkeley received a commission as major in the unit, which was part of Eppa Hunton's 8th Virginia Infantry. Three of Berkeley's younger brothers also joined, and Molly Berkeley convinced her husband to join the Confederate cause and moved their family as well to Aldie, although the many related Berkeley families (with their enslaved servants but without their officer fathers/husbands) would move to Hanover, Caroline and Goochland counties during the war.^[7]

After Tebbs left for desk duty in Richmond, the men of the 8th Virginia elected Norborne Berkeley their Lt. Colonel on April 27, 1862. He was promoted to colonel on August 9, 1863 on account of his actions at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner, as were his younger brothers William Noland Berkeley and Charles Berkeley (his brother Edmund was wounded but not captured).

Norborne Berkeley was taken to the Point Lookout Prison hospital^[8] in Maryland in October 1863. In February 1864 he was moved to Johnson's Island in Ohio, from which he was exchanged for a Union prisoner on March 18, 1864 (as were his younger brothers earlier the same month). However, by October 1864 Norborne Berkeley was hospitalized in the Chester hospital. He allegedly received a brevet promotion to brigadier general. He was present at the Howlett Line on January 28, 1865, but resigned on March 2, 1865 due to chronic rheumatism and spent the next weeks in a Richmond hospital. He was paroled on April 24, 1865.