William Bruce Martin
(Pasquotank County)
Featured Character – 1864 Confederate
Decline
Charge
of the VMI Cadets at the Battle of New Market
Courtesy
of Benjamin West Clinedinst, 1880, Virginia Military Institute
Museum
Not
long after his graduation from West Point in 1840, Elizabeth
City
native James Green Martin met and
later married Mary Ann Murray Read of Delaware.
Since her husband spent long tours of duty at isolated
army posts, Mary
Ann Martin continued to live with her family in New Castle County, Delaware. William Bruce Martin was
born on September
18, 1846. Once the
army assigned Martin
to long-term service on the Kansas
frontier,
his wife and children joined him at Fort Riley. However, after North Carolina left the Union, Martin
resigned his commission and returned to his home state.
He moved his family into a temporary home in Raleigh. On January 6, 1862,
William Bruce Martin
enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute.
Although appointed a sergeant in the Corps of
Cadets, Martin missed the Battle of New Market due to sickness. Promoted to second
lieutenant, he graduated
ninth in the class of 1865. He
farmed,
clerked in a store, and taught school for a time before studying law. After earning his license,
Martin moved to Norfolk and set
up a
practice. He
quickly inculcated himself
with the port’s Democratic courthouse clique, serving as a councilman
and city
attorney. In 1895,
the Democratic
legislature rewarded Martin by appointing him judge of the newly
created Court
of Law and Chancery. William
Bruce
Martin served as a judge until his death on May 13, 1921.