Alexander Tedford Barclay Papers
Collection 002
.2 linear ft.
The collection consists of 69 letters from Barclay (1844-1915) to his family in Lexington. Barclay entered Washington College at the age of 15 and then served in the Liberty Hall Volunteers, a component of the famous Stonewall Brigade of the Confederate Army. The letters reveal the everyday life of a regular soldier. The horrors of war changed Barclay as time progressed and he developed a more profound religious outlook. He later gave long service as a Trustee of Washington and Lee. These letters have been published in an volume edited by Charles Turner, Ted Barclay, Liberty Hall Volunteers: Letters From the Stonewall Brigade (1861-1864). It is included in our Faculty Publications collection.
Francis Wilkinson Pickens Papers
Collection 013, 013a
.2 linear ft.
Pickens (1805-1869) was a prominent South Carolina politician who was a Civil War governor (1860-1862) of his state. He earlier served as a U.S. Congressman and as United States Ambassador to Russia. The correspondence is chiefly to his wife, Lucy Petaway Holcombe Pickens. There is an 1845 letter to John C. Calhoun urging the latter to be a candidate for the U.S. Senate. There is additional Pickens material in the Pickens Family Papers (collection 046) and the John C. Calhoun Papers (collection 010). The Pickens Family collection includes official correspondence from Pickens during his tenure as Russian ambassador.
Frank Smith Reader Diary
Collection 019
.2 linear ft.
Reader's 1864 Civil War diary is one of the most interesting and valuable items in our holdings. Reader (b. 1842), of New Brighton, Pennsylvania, was a private in the West Virginia 5th Cavalry Regiment of the Union Army. His diary covers the period from March 10 until June 25 following his capture. It includes the battle of New Market and the burning of V.M.I. and homes in Lexington by Union troops under the command of General David Hunter. It is a prime example of a valuable first hand account from a regular soldier of the Civil War and is of particular interest because of its description of wartime activities in the local area. Following the war Reader took up the ministry and the newspaper business and in 1890 wrote a history of the 5th West Virginia Cavalry.
David Flavel Jamison Papers
Collection 056
.2 linear ft.
Jamison (1810-1864) was a South Carolina historian and political leader. His papers cover the period 1860-1864 when he was a state official in various positions during the Civil War. They include letters and other documents pertaining to the South Carolina Secession Convention of which he was president. Also included is material on the defense of Charleston in 1860 and 1861. Jamison was the author of The Life and Times of Bertrand du Guesclin: A History of the Fourteenth Century (1864) which is in our Rare Book collection.
Blain Family Papers
Collection 066
.2 linear ft.
The Blains were a family of eastern Virginia whose members provide first hand accounts of events during the Civil War. There is a diary of Mary Randolph Blain (1861-1863, 1867) describing civilian life in the Williamsburg area during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. There are also letters of Randolph A. Blain including his May 18, 1864 account of the battle of the Wilderness.
John Paul Dull Papers
Collection 072
.2 linear ft.
Dull (1832-1865), of Augusta County, served in the 5th Division of the renowned Stonewall Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia. The collection includes 16 letters in 1864-1865 from Dull to his wife written while Dull was serving in the Valley of Virginia and later in eastern Virginia near Petersburg. Dull was killed at Petersburg on March 25, 1865. The collection includes a photograph of Dull and his wife and daughter.
Robert Hanson Fleming Diary
Collection 073
.2 linear ft.
Fleming, of Augusta County, was a midshipman in the Confederate Navy. His diary, from March 28-May 16, 1865, describes land duty guarding a train shipment of Confederate specie. He left his ship at Richmond and travelled with the train to Augusta, Georgia, as the Confederacy was unravelling. Following Lee's surrender and the completion of his duty, Fleming related his return to Augusta County. This is a valuable first person account of the atmosphere prevalent at war's end.
John Newton Lyle Papers
Collection 077, 077a
.6 linear ft.
John Newton Lyle (1839-1925), of Montgomery County, Virginia, was an 1861 graduate of Washington College and a member of the Liberty Hall Volunteers. He was captured at the battle of Kernstown in 1862 and after his exchange joined the 19th Virginia Cavalry. He went on to a career as a lawyer and judge and lived in Texas. His papers consist of two unpublished typescripts: "Sketches Found in a Confederate Veteran's Desk" (1913) and "Stonewall Jackson's Guard: The Washington College Company, or Imperialism in the American Union." The latter typescript is an expansion of the first. For more information on Lyle see the William George McDowell Papers (collection 076) and W.G. Bean, The Liberty Hall Volunteers (in our Faculty Publications collection).
L.A. Harper Correspondence
Collection 087
.4 linear ft.
Harper (b. 1833) was a lieutenant in the 25th South Carolina Infantry. He was wounded in Virginia in September, 1864, and furloughed. The letters (1862-1864) are between Harper and his wife, Lizzie. They focus on family as well as military matters. This collection is a good resource for the study of problems arising from the separation of a husband and wife during the Civil war.
August Forsberg Memoir
Collection 109
.2 linear ft.
Forsberg (1831-1910) was a Swedish immigrant and engineer with the Confederate Army. His memoir of his war years includes accounts of Confederate fortifications, marches and battles. Many of his wartime duties were in western Virginia. There is a description of his life in a Union prisoner of war camp. After the war Forsberg settled in Lynchburg where he held the post of City Engineer for many years.
John DeHart Ross Papers
Collection 120
.2 linear ft.
Ross (1840-1912), a graduate of V.M.I., was an officer in the 52nd Virginia Infantry during the Civil War. After the war he returned to Lexington to a life as a prosperous farmer and businessman. His papers (1856-1912) are primarily wartime correspondence with his wife, Agnes Reid Ross. His letters include references to his participation in the Cheat Mountain Campaign in 1861, to Jackson's Valley Campaign in 1862, to Gettysburg in 1863 and to the Siege of Richmond in 1864-1865. Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson are mentioned frequently in the letters. This collection is one of the best of our several that provide eyewitness accounts of the war. For an annotated edition of Ross' correspondence see Richard W. Oram, ed., "From Harper's Ferry to the Fall of Richmond: Letters of Col. John DeHart Ross, C.S.A., 1861-1865" in West Virginia History, 45 (1983-84), pp. 159-174.