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Note: He enlisted in the Confederate Army on 24th October 1861 at Gloucester Point in Company E, 21st Virginia Militia and transferred 8th February 1862 to Company B, 26th Virginia Infantry (Wise's Brigade) under Captain Patrick H. Fitzhugh. The 26th Virginia Infantry was mustered at Gloucester Point to support the naval battery there, to defend Gloucester County from invading forces and to support Colonel Bohannon in the defence of Mathews County. Although units of the Yankee Army remained on the Lower Peninsula south of the York River at Fort Monroe in Hampton, no military action occurred during the first year at Gloucester Point. The regiment was re-assigned to locate south of Richmond, Virginia, along the James River to protect Richmond. They began their trip north on 4th May 1862 where the regiment established itself to guard the southern flank of Richmond. They were in the Seven Days Battles, a series of six major battles over the seven days from 25th June to 1st July 1862. According to Reverend William Wiatt, chaplain of the 26th Infantry, Peter W. Bristow 'came to Christ' on 21st July 1863. The regiment stayed at their position south of Richmond until September 1863 when they were transferred to the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. They were sent south to Charleston, South Carolina where the unit participated in the defence of Charleston. In April 1864 the Regiment started back to Virginia and they joined the fighting at Petersburg, Virginia. (Eventually, the 26th Virginia Infantry and the confederate forces retreated westward and surrendered at Appomattox on 12th April 1865.) Peter W. Bristow was wounded 30th July 1864 in trenches near Petersburg during the Battle of the Crater and sent to a hospital in Lynchburg, returned to service and received a gunshot fracture of cranium right-side paretal region and died of compression of brain. He is buried in Blanford Cemetery in Memorial Hill with 3,000 other soldiers killed in Petersburg. (listed as R. W. Brister).
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