Peyton Benjamin Gravely was born on May 15, 1835, in Henry County, Virginia, to Willis Gravely and Ann Barrow. His father was a tobacconist who owned $18,400 of real estate and $15,000 of personal property by 1860. Gravely grew up and attended school in Henry County, and by 1860, he was working as a trader.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on April 22, 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Price’s Company, Virginia Light Artillery. The company reorganized during the winter of 1861-62, and he received a promotion to 1^st lieutenant in Company F of the 42^nd Virginia Infantry. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Battle of Cold Harbor. He eventually received a promotion to captain. He was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg and the Battle of the Wilderness.

 

He settled in Danville, Virginia, after the war, and he earned a living as a tobacco trader. He married Mary F. Walters on October 24, 1871, and they had at least five children: Kate, born around 1873; Peyton, born around 1876; James, born around 1878; Daisy, born around 1881; and Mary, born around 1885. A local writer described him as one of the “leading tobacco manufacturers of Danville.” He died in Woodstock, Virginia, on August 8, 1915.

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