RESIDENCES: A pre-war (1850/1860) resident of Hope Mills, Page Co., Va. Resided in 1870 in Springfield, Page Co., Va.
RECORD OF SERVICE: Enlisted as a private 02 Jun 1861 at Luray in Company K ("Page Volunteers"), 10th Virginia Infantry. Promoted to 2nd corporal 23 Sep 1861. Promoted to 4th sergeant 24 Apr 1862. Appointed to 3rd lieutenant 08 Sep 1862. 2nd lieutenant 21 Nov 1862. Captured either at the Battle of the Wilderness 10 May 1864 or Spotyslvania Court House 12 May 1864. Taken to Ft. Delaware 17 May 1864; Hilton Head, S.C. Aug 1864; and Ft. Pulaski, Ga. Oct 1864. One of the "Immortal 600" that, as prisoners-of-war, were subjected by Federal authorities to fire from Confederate guns (unknowingly by the Confederates who were directing the fire). Returned to Ft. Delaware Mar 1865. Released under Oath of Allegiance 15 Jun 1865. Described as light complexion, light hair, blue eyes, 5'9", residence of Page County.
OBITUARY from Confederate Veteran Magazine (1920): LIEUT. E. LEE BELL - Seldom have I ever felt so called upon to pay a tribute to a loved and honored comrade as has come to me by the death of Lieut. E. Lee Bell, who died at his home, in Lynchburg, Va., on August 1, 1920, at the age of seventy-seven years.
He was a native of Page County, Va., and a member of Company K, 10th Virginia Infantry; and when the tocsin of war in 1861 resounded over the hills and through the valleys of his State, he, then but eighteen years of age, was among the first to volunteer in defense of his country and entered the ranks as a private, rising by promotion to a first lieutenancy.
In the battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862, when every officer of the company down to corporal, was killed or wounded, he then, as corporal, became the commandant and discharged the duties incumbent upon him with heroic courage and marked ability until the return of his captain in Febraury, 1863.
On May 12, 1864, he was captured in the battle of Spotyslvania Court House, together with the entire division of Gen. Edward Johnson, and on the 20th of August, 1864, he was one of the six hundred Confederate officers at Fort Delaware who were selected under a fictitious charge of retaliation and sent to Morris Island, S.C., and placed in a stockade directly in range of the Confederate guns in Charleston Harbor firing upon the batteries of Gregg and Wagner of the enemy. For forty-three days, together with his comrades, he endured this crucial ordeal of impending danger, spurning the preffered offer of the oath of allegiance to the United States to regain his freedom, thus adding luster to the character and devotion to his rightous cause.
While a prisoner at Fort Delaware Lieutenant Bell enlisted in the service of the lord Jesus Christ, and loyally and faithfully he exemplified by his walk and conversation to the end.
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