Collection: Launcelot M. Blackford Letters | Archival Collection Guides

Scope and Contents

Contains the transcribed correspondence of Launcelot M. Blackford to his father William M. Blackford and other family members in Virginia from June 1860 to December 1861. Includes letters from Manassas Junction, Charlottesville, Fairfax Station, Lynchburg, Winchester and Martinsburg, Virginia (currently West Virginia) during the first year of the American Civil War.

Dates

1860-1861

Biographical / Historical

Launcelot M. Blackford was born in Caroline County, Virginia in 1837 to William M. and Mary Berkley Minor Blackford. Just prior to the start of the Civil War, Launcelot was a student at the University of Virginia. During the early part of the war, he served as a private in Archibald Graham's Light Artillery Company (1st Rockbridge Artillery) and later as a clerk in the Confederate Military Court. Following the war he served as Head of the Episcopal High School for boys in Alexandria, Virginia from 1870 to 1913.