LT. COL. CHARLES S. VENABLE
Was born in Prince Edward county, Va., April 19, 1827, and is of
Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, Samuel W. Venable, serving as
a captain in the war of the Revolution, whose father, Nathaniel Venable,
was son of the colonial settlers. Nathaniel E. Venable, father
of the subject of this sketch, was born in Prince Edward county, and
died in 1857. Mary (Scott) Venable, his mother, was a daughter of
Captain Charles Scott who served under Col. Washington in the Revolutionary
war. He married Margaret C. McDowell, daughter of
Governor James McDowell, Jan. 15, 1856, who died in 1874, and in
July, 1876, he was united in marriage to Mary S. Brown, widow of
Colonel J. Thompson Brown, C. S. A. Col. Venable was educated at
Hampden Sidney College, graduating in 1842, and from the University
of Virginia in sessions of 1845-6 and 1847-8, then taking a course
at Universities of Berlin and Bonn in 1853 and 1854. From 1846 to
1856, he was professor of mathematics at Hampden Sidney College,
excepting a two years furlough abroad. During the year of 1856 he
filled the chair of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the University
of Georgia, and from 1857 to 1861, he filled the chair of Mathematics
in the University of South Carolina. Leaving the professor's chair to
enter the army, he enlisted in 1861 as a private in a South Carolina
regiment; was promoted to a lieutenancy in a cavalry command in
April of that year; captain of engineers on duty at New Orleans and
Vicksburg, from April to June, 1862, and was then chosen A. D. C.
to Gen. R. E. Lee; was promoted to Lieut.-Colonel in 1864, and was
with Lee at the surrender at Appomattox. After the war was over
he was elected professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia,
and is still occupying that position. His postoffice address is Charlottesville.
