Major General John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875) began his political career as U. S. Representative from Kentucky, and eventually served as the 14th Vice President of the United States under the Presidency of James Buchanan. After his failed presidential bid in 1860, he was appointed US Senator from Kentucky. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Breckinridge was kicked out of the Senate and joined the Confederate army. He was appointed General of the 1st Kentucky Brigade. In 1864 General Breckinridge assumed command of Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley. He finally became the Confederate States Secretary of War in 1865. After the war, Breckinridge fled the country, fearing a trial for treason. He was granted amnesty in late 1868 and in 1869 returned to Kentucky, where he died in 1875.

Edward H. Murrell was born in Bedford County, Virginia, on July 31, 1925, to David Gamble and Lucy Alice Tate Murrell. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in the early 1840s. By 1849, he had established a practice in Lynchburg and married Almira Halsey. They had one daughter, Julia, in 1850.