Chalmers Lanier Glenn

Orphaned at 20, he was adopted by Dr. Edward Travis Brodnax (1796-1874), a wealthy planter (130+ slaves in 1860) in Rockingham County, NC and his wife Janet Hamilton Chalmers, a relative of his mother. In 1861 Chalmers was a 30 year old tobacco farmer at Leaksville (now Eden) in Rockingham County and a lawyer with an office in Wentworth, NC. He enrolled there on 13 May 1861 and mustered as First Lieutenant of Company I, 3rd North Carolina Infantry on 18 May in Garysburg, NC. The regiment was re-designated the 13th North Carolina Infantry on 14 November 1861. He was elected Captain on 26 April 1862 during the army reorganization.

"Captain Glenn, of Company I, led his company all day, through all the engagements, with great spirit, but was killed by the last shot fired at us" at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

His service from the Roster 1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, and a feature on his son Robert in the Raleigh News and Observer of 3 July 1904. The quote above from Lieutenant Colonel Ruffin's after-action report. His memorial in Green Hill Cemetery, Greensboro, NC is on Findagrave.

He married Ann Sarah Dodge (1831-1917) in December 1851 and they had 3 sons, all adopted by Dr. Brodnax after their father's death. 2nd son Robert Brodnax Glenn (1854-1920) was Governor of North Carolina (1905-1909).

Copies of papers, photographs and other items of the Brodnax-Glenn-Wilson Collection are among the Rockingham County Historical Collections in the Gerald B. James Library, Rockingham Community College in Wentworth [finding aid (PDF)].

09/06/1830; Halifax County, VA

09/14/1862; Fox's Gap, MD