There may be no connection to William Eggleston at all, but John R. Eggleston was a Holmes County native who attended the US Naval Academy and joined the Confederate Navy at the outbreak of war. He was one of seven lieutanants on the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) during its clash with the USS Monitor. He later attained the rank of captain. After the war he returned to Mississippi and relocated to Raymond in 1885. There he penned accounts of the action at Hampton Roads published in Confederate Veteran magazine and in The Papers of the Southern Historical Society. Captain Eggleston died in Sewanee, TN, in September 1913. His Raymond property became the site of the main campus of Hinds Junior (now Community) College. Local lore, including histories of the college, referred to him as "Captain of the Merrimac," which was not correct.