Richard B. Banks was born around 1835 in Norfolk, Virginia, to John and Mary Banks. His father was a master carpenter who owned $2,500 of real estate and $750 of personal property by 1860. Banks grew up and attended school in Norfolk, and by 1860, he was working as a clerk.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on April 18, 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company B of the 6^th Virginia Infantry on June 4, 1861. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with dark hair and blue eyes. In July 1861, he was promoted to 2^nd lieutenant in Company H of the 16^th Virginia Infantry.

 

In 1862, his company became the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, also known as Grandy’s Company, Virginia Light Artillery. The company took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Overland Campaign, and the Appomattox campaign. He eventually received a promotion to 1^st lieutenant. Union forces captured him at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, and imprisoned him on Johnson’s Island in Ohio. He was “released on oath” on June 18, 1865.

 

He married Mary Virginia Lee on February 19, 1862, and they had at least two children: Leroy, born around 1866; and Richard, born around 1870. He returned to Norfolk after the war, and he earned a living as a ship builder. He and his wife may have separated by 1880; according to that year’s federal census, he was living in Norfolk, while she was living with her father in Ashland, Virginia. By 1900, he was living in the Robert E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers’ Home in Richmond, Virginia. He died on September 1, 1906.

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