GEN. BIRKETT D. FRY.
Birkett D. Fry was born in Kanawha county, (then) Virginia, on
June 24, 1822. His father was Thornton Fry, son of Henry Fry, who
was a son of Col. Joshua Fry (born in England) of colonial fame. He
was educated at Washington College, Pennsylvania, at the Virginia
Military Institute, and at West Point, and entered the U. S. army in
1847, as a first lieutenant, U. S. Voltigeurs and Foot Riflemen. Served
under General Scott, and took part in battles of Contreras, Cherubusco,
Molina del Rey, Chapultepec, and City of Mexico. After the close of the
war returned to Fort McHenry, Maryland, where the regiment was disbanded.
In the spring of 1849, Lieutenant Fry went with a party of
young gentlemen across the plains to California, where he remained until
1856. He then went to Nicaragua and, as Colonel and General, took
part in the revolution going on there. He was in command at Granada,
and defeated the army of Guatamala. After the failure to establish
the liberal party in power he returned to San Francisco, in 1858,
remaining there until the autumn of 1859. Coming then to Alabama, settled
at Tallassee, and engaged in cotton manufacturing until the outbreak
of the civil war.
In the summer of 1861 he was appointed colonel of the 13th Alabama
Infantry regiment, and reporting at once with the regiment at
Richmond, was ordered to Yorktown, serving there until the evacuation.
Colonel Fry was wounded at battle of Seven Pines (May 31,
1862). After an absence of six weeks he returned to command of his
regiment, and remained with it until severely wounded in battle of
Sharpsburg, by which wound he was disabled about four months. Resuming
command of his regiment, he was again wounded at Chancellorsville,
but did not leave his regiment, commanding that or the
brigade until Gettysburg battle. In the last charge of that battle, on
July 3d, while commanding the right brigade of Heath's Division (the
directing brigade in the famous charge), he was wounded in the right
shoulder, shot through the thigh, and made prisoner. He lay on the
field six days, and then was taken to the hospital at Fort McHenry.
The following October was sent to the Federal prison at Johnsons
Island, Lake Erie. In March, 1864, he was specially exchanged and
returned to Richmond. Ordered to Drewrys Bluff to take Barton's
brigade, he commanded it in the battle where Beauregard drove back
Butler's army. Soon after, ordered to join General Lee in Spottsylvania,
was by him assigned to command of two brigades (Archer's
and Walker's) with some other troops, and commanded this force in
the second battle of Cold Harbor, holding the left of the Confederate
line. A few days later, Colonel Fry was promoted brigadier-general,
and soon thereafter he was ordered to Augusta, Georgia, to command a
district embracing part of South Carolina and part of Georgia, which
service he rendered until the close of the war.
After the close of the war, General Fry went to Havana, Cuba, and
remained there three years. In 1868 he returned to Alabama, and resumed
his old business of cotton manufacturing at Tallassee, in which
he continued until 1876. Then after spending some time in Florida he
resided in Montgomery, Alabama, where his wife died. He married, in
San Francisco, California, July 14, 1853, Martha A. Micou, born in
Augusta, Georgia. She died April 8, 1878, aged forty-five years.
In 1881 General Fry came to reside in Richmond, Virginia, engaging
in cotton manufacturing. Since September, 1886, he has been president
of the Marshall Manufacturing Company, of Richmond.
