Launcelot Minor Blackford, letter
June 28, 1863
“We made Chambersburg by noon…The country passed through is interesting enough. It is fertile and highly cultivated… the fields are much smaller, the houses more frequent & handsomer… Many are of stone and brick, and have glass window sashes. An indifferent building of this sort is hard to find, and the average of the most inferior is better than that of the best in Eastern Virginia. One I saw, on the premises of a Mr., or Judge McClure, this side of Chambersburg, which was not only of very large size, but really elegant: painted snow-white, with ornamented eaves, pendants. The house and whole property of this individual however are beautiful and complete beyond description. I spent some hours in Chambersburg, which is a pretty town of 5600 inhabitants.”
Author
Name: Launcelot Minor Blackford
Unit: 1st Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, CSA
Document Information
Type: Letter
Subject(s):
- Descriptions of Locale
Event Location: Chambersburg, Franklin Co., PA
Document Origin: Chambersburg, Franklin Co., PA
Notes
Blackford served in the Rockbridge Artillery (Private), in the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia (Clerk in the Military court), and in the 24th Virginia Infantry, “William R. Terry's” Brigade, “Pickett's” division (Adjutant). Following the Civil War, Blackford returned to his pre-war position as a teacher in a high school and, in 1884, married. In 1914, Blackford passed away, leaving his wife and six children to carry on his family’s legacy.
Source
Launcelot Minor Blackford to William Matthews Blackford. June 28, 1863. Valley of the Shadow Personal Papers. Obtained from http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/papers/A0001.