Research

« Back to the Document index

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.