Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume V, Part 54

Author: Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, 1853-1935, ed. cn
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 848

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Lucy Landon Blackford, born November 6, 1826; married Dr. John Staige Davis, one of the professors in the school of medicine at the University of Virginia, July 10, 1847, and died at the university, February 18, 1859.

William Willis Blackford, born March 23, 1831 ; married, January 10, 1856, Mary Rob- ertson, eldest daughter of Wyndam Robert- son, of Richmond, Virginia, subsequently of Abingdon, Virginia, died at Lynnhaven Bay, Virginia, May 1, 1905.

Charles Minor Blackford, born October 17, 1833; married, February 17, 1856, to Susan Leigh Colston; died in Lynchburg, Virginia, March 10, 1903.

Benjamin Lewis Blackford, born August 5, 1835 ; married Nannie Steinbergen ; died in Staunton, Virginia, September 25, 1908.

Lancelot Minor Blackford, born February 27, 1837 ; married Eliza Chew Ambler, Au- gust 5, 1884; died at the Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia, May 23, 1914.

Eugene Blackford, born April II, 1839; married Rebecca Chapman Gordon, only

child of John M. Gordon, of Baltimore ; died at Pikesville, Maryland, February 4, 1908.

Mary Isabella Blackford, born November 27, 1840; married J. Churchill Cooke, March 16, 1865; now (1915) living on York river, in King William county, Virginia.

Charles Minor.Blackford, the second son of this family, was a delicate child. The account he gives of his earlier childhood, "saddened and rendered unhappy by suffer- ing from sore eyes," serves to mark the ad- vance of medical science during the eighty years which have elapsed. He says :

For about five years I was kept in a dark room and by virtue of the barbaric arts practiced by the medical men of that day I was subjected to the tortures of multifarious remedies and suffered many things of many physicians, among which poulticing, bleeding, cupping, leeching, blistering, starving, and every phase of depleting, were scarcely the worst. Finally after one eye was entirely blind, and the other nearly so, I had a seton put on the back of my neck, as though to punish me for my misfor- tune. About this time, some ray of light seemed to strike the faculty, and they concluded, as all their efforts had failed, they would give Nature a chance; having violated her every rule, they con- cluded as a desperate remedy in a desperate case, to conform to her requirements and see the effect. I was taken out of the dark room, the various pro- cesses of depletion stopped, the bleeding, leeching and cupping ceased, the blisters were taken off, the seton dried up, generous and nourishing food given me, and I was sent into the country, and given free range at Miss Betty Hill's place, Mt. Airy, in Caro- line County, where soon Nature asserted herself and my vigorous constitution triumphed over disease, my eyesight returned, and I got well-one eye is impaired and stands a monument of the doctors' folly.

He remained at Mount Airy, under the care of Miss Hill, his mother's lifelong inti- mate friend, from 1840 until 1844, when, eleven years old, he went back to Fred- ericksburg, for the first time in his life physi- cally fit to go to school. Even at this early age, he gave evidence of the patient per- sistence, dogged determination, and sym- pathetic nature which marked his career and made his success. His grandmother offered a dollar to which ever of her grandsons memorized within a stated period certain designated Bible verses. Of them all, only this little fellow, handicapped by bad eyes and delayed schooling, proved himself will- ing to sacrifice his playtime to win the prize. He wanted it and seeing an honorable way to get it, he went after it and won, just as in maturer life he overrode obstacles which

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would have turned a less forceful man aside from the path to successful achievement. The money was the least of his reward, for he always said his love of the Bible had its foundation in the words then memorized and never forgotten, and that the task was re- lieved of its tedium by his grandmother's pleasure in his efforts.

In 1846 his father removed his family to Lynchburg, and, except for the years spent in the Confederate service, the remainder of Mr. Blackford's long and successful life was interwoven with the business, civic and social life of that city, where he lived until his death, earning the right to be designated as its "busiest, brainiest and most useful citizen."

He records the date of his arrival in Lynchburg as "Tuesday, the second day of September, 1846, when nearly thirteen years of age," and adds: "We went up the river by canal boat from Richmond, making the journey in what was then considered quick time. 40 hours" (one hundred and forty-six miles).

In Fredericksburg he went to school suc- cessively to Mr. Sterling, Mr. Dodd and Mr. Halsey. In Lynchburg he was sent first to Dunn & Saunders, who had a large school in the Odd Fellows' Hall, on Twelfth street, between Church and Main. After a month his father, thinking it wiser to make other provision for the education of his sons, en- gaged Mr. Lancelot M. Kean as tutor for them and some other boys. In this private school, under different teachers, Mr. Black- ford studied until 1849, when he went to a large academy in Louisa county, taught by Mr. John A. Winston. After one year at this academy, he entered the University of Virginia, on October 1, 1850, seventeen years of age, "too young and not prepared," he writes. "this was a mistake and I have felt its ill effects all my life. I was very happy, but by no means a distinguished stu- dent." After devoting three years to aca- demic classes at the university, he entered the law school on the Ist of October. 1853, under Professors John B. Minor and James P. Holcombe, and graduated Bachelor of Laws on June 29, 1853.

The influence which determined his voca- tion is interesting in this day of much con- cern for "pre-vocational guidance." A famous bank embezzlement case, involving large sums of money and people of promi-

nence, was of such paramount interest to the whole community that curiosity drew him to the court house on the first day of the trial. He says :

I was in a court house for the first time. I pushed my way up near the judge (Judge Daniel Wilson) who recognized me and called me up to a seat near him, and was very kind in explaining to me what was going on. I got interested and sat during the day's proceedings. When court ad- journed the judge invited me to come the next day and offered me the same seat. I accepted and never missed an hour of the trial during the three weeks it lasted. This taste of legal proceedings made me determine to be a lawyer.

On the Ist of August, 1855, he commenced the practice of law in Lynchburg, in a part- nership with Mr. William Tudor Yancey, dissolved after two years. From August, 1857, until the beginning of the civil war he practiced alone. Of this period he says :

My success was not particularly brilliant, but it was sure and steady, and in the year immediately preceding the closing of my office and going to war, I collected $1,750.00, which for the fifth year of practice was very encouraging. The sum does not look large to me now, but then I considered it astonishing.

Immediately after leaving the university, he became engaged to Miss Susan Leigh Colston, and they were married by the Rev. Dabney C. T. Davis, on Tuesday, February 17, 1856, at "Hill and Dale," the country home of her brother, Raleigh Colston, in Albemarle county, he in his twenty-third year and she in her twenty-second. His account of their wedding gives too true and vivid a picture of days and customs that are past to be omitted. He writes :

The wedding was typical of the Virginian hos- pitality of the day. The winters of 1855-6 and 1856-7 were made famous for their great snows, and at the time of the wedding the snow was very deep. hard and dry. The houses of all the gentlemen of the neighborhood, like Mr. Colston's, were crowded with guests who had come to the wedding, and they, with the numbers who came up from Char- lottesville, made a large and gay company. I had been a student of the University of Virginia for five years and had graduated in law the year before and my wife had been a well known and popular member of Albemarle and Charlottesville society for several years, so we were well known. The festivities lasted for nearly a week and we went from house to house, as was the custom of those days, and every innocent pleasure which ingenuity could dictate or youth suggest wiled away the happy hours.

At that time there was no railroad from Char-

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lottesville to Lynchburg, and all railroad travel, owing to the snow, was very uncertain. To be sure and be on hand, I started in a buggy with a good horse, and with my brother, Eugene, then a school boy, as my companion, I reached the Uni- versity Saturday night. On Tuesday evening I started with Eugene to go up to Mr. Colston's in my buggy. I understood that the arrangement was that I should go to Mr. R. W. N. Noland's, who lived on the adjoining farm, where I was to dress and go with them to the wedding. With that belief I took my trunk in the buggy and reached Mr. Noland's from Dr. Davis's about dark. To my horror I found there was some mistake, and that the Nolands were gone, the house was locked up, and all the house servants gone with them to Mr. Colston's to aid in the preparations. The house was cold, dark, and inaccessible. I was in despair. At last a farm hand suggested he could force a window and succeeded and I crawled in, but all the lamps were gone and the fire was out. The lamps were adding their light to the brilliancy of the wedding, leaving the groom in utter darkness and with chattering teeth. The emergency was great, but the inventive power of my farm hand friend rose to the occasion. He got a lightwood torch and stood outside and by the flickering light which came through the window I donned my wedding garments and took my last bachelor shave without a fire and with the thermometer but little above zero. The toilet thus performed was not elaborate or long, but it answered the purpose. Eugene dressed under the same circumstances

Though not directly related, young Mr. and Mrs. Blackford were connected as "Vir- ginia cousins" through the Carters, both being direct descendants of Robert Carter, of Corotoman, and, through collateral branches, their genealogical lines often touch.

Susan Leigh Colston was the daughter of Thomas Marshall Colston and Eliza Jac- queline Fisher ; Thomas Marshall Colston was the son of Raleigh Colston, of Honey- wood, Berkeley county, and of Elizabeth Marshall, a sister of Chief Justice Marshall ; Raleigh Colston was the son of Traverse Colston (born 1712) by his second marriage with Susanna Opie; Traverse Colston was the son of Charles Colston (born 1690) and Susanna Traverse ; Charles Colston was the son of William Colston (born 1618), who came to Virginia in 1640, and this William Colston, of Virginia, was the son of William Colston, of Bristol, England.

Carter Line .- Her mother, Eliza Jac- queline Fisher, was the daughter of George Fisher and Ann Ambler; Ann Ambler was the daughter of Jacqueline Ambler and Re- becca Burwell; Rebecca Burwell was the daughter of Lewis Burwell, of White Marsh,

Gloucester county, Virginia, and of Judith Page; Lewis Burwell was the son of Na- thaniel Burwell and Elizabeth Carter ; Eliz- abeth Carter was the daughter of Robert Carter, of Corotoman, by his marriage with Judith Armistead, his first wife.

Marshall Line .- The mother of her father, Thomas Marshall Colston, was Elizabeth Marshall, daughter of Colonel Thomas Mar- shall, of Oak Hill, and of Mary Randolph Keith; Colonel Thomas Marshall was the son of John Marshall, of the Forest (born 1722), and of Elizabeth Markham.

Randolph Line .- Her great-grandmother, Mary Randolph Keith, was the daughter of Mary Randolph and Rev. James Keith ; Mary Randolph was the daughter of Thomas Randolph, of Tuckahoe, and Judith Churchill.

Jacqueline and Ambler Lines .- Her mother, Eliza Jacqueline Fisher, was the daughter of Ann Ambler and George Fisher ; Ann Ambler was the daughter of Jacqueline Ambler and Rebecca Burwell. Of the daugh- ters of this marriage, one married John Mar- shall, chief justice, another Daniel Call, and another General Edward Carrington. Jac- queline Ambler was the son of Richard Ambler, of Yorktown, son of John Ambler, of York, England, and of Elizabeth Jac- queline, daughter of Edward Jacqueline.

The wedding festivities over, Mr. Black- ford brought his bride home to Lynchburg, coming by way of Richmond. After about a week spent under his father's roof, they went to their home on Diamond Hill, at the corner of Pearl and Harrison streets, pur- chased in contemplation of his marriage. With the exception of a short time during the war when it was abandoned, they lived happily together there until his death, and there his wife still lives (1915). Of this marriage six children were born :

Nannie Colston Blackford, born April 20, 1857 ; married Samuel T. Withers, February 6, 1883, and on February 8, 1884, after one year of happy married life, spent under her father's roof, she died, and was buried with her new born child.

William Marshall Blackford, born Au- gust 23. 1859, died March 5, 1862.

Lucy Landon Blackford, born September 2, 1861, died March 14, 1862.

When these two children were sick with scarlet fever, from which they died, their father was in the army, actively engaged

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covering Johnson's rear, as he fell back from Manassas. He did not hear of their death for a month. The regiment was drawn up in line of battle when a courier rode up and handed him his wife's letter announcing the sad news. Before he finished reading it, the order came to advance and he had to take the head of his company and lead it under heavy fire. The little daughter he had never seen.

Eugene Blackford, born February II, 1863, lived but a short time.

Charles Minor Blackford, Jr., born Sep- tember 5, 1865, now living in Staunton, Vir- ginia (1915).

Raleigh Colston Blackford, born June 25, 1870, now practicing law in Lynchburg, Virginia, and living with his mother (1915).

At the time of the military excitement in- cident to the "John Brown Raid," Mr. Blackford joined a company of cavalry, com- manded by R. C. W. Radford, formerly a captain of cavalry in the United States army. With a company from Bedford, com- manded by Captain W. R. Terry, it formed the nucleus of the regiment afterward known as the Second Virginia Cavalry. Early in April, 1861, these companies were put on a war footing and ordered into camp in the woods now in the enclosure of Miller Park, Lynchburg, and Captain Radford was made colonel of the regiment, John S. Lang- horne was elected captain of the Lynchburg company and Mr. Blackford its first lieu- tenant. Here they were constantly drilled and their equipment improved until the 3rd of May, 1861, when they were ordered to the seat of war around Manassas Junction, to join the army of Northern Virginia, organizing under General G. T. Beauregard. About sunrise they broke up their camp and started, each company with over one hun- dred well-armed and well-mounted men, and slowly wended their way through town, fol- lowed by sorrowing friends and relatives, fording James river about where the dam at Scott's mill now stands. Of that fine body of men, not one-half ever returned.

The evening before-Sunday-he had bid- den farewell to his wife and two children and said good-bye to his father and mother -the fourth of their sons to go to the war. The fifth was then in camp with the Rock- bridge artillery.

These two cavalry companies marched from Lynchburg to Manassas Junction,

thence to Centreville and on to Fairfax Court House, where they remained until the battle of Manassas, taking active part there on the 21st, charging the enemy as they re- tired and aiding in the capture of many cannon, wagons and other stores and am- munition. Mr. Blackford had once before been under fire when commanding a small force of cavalry in a skirmish at Vienna, on the Loudoun & Hampshire railroad, but Manassas was his first battle. A week or two afterward he was elected captain of the company to succeed Captain Langhorne, then made major of the regiment, and through all his after life he was called "Cap- tain Blackford."

All during the summer and fall of 1861, they performed the usual duties of cavalry on the outposts. The day after the battle of Ball's Bluff, Loudoun county, the com- pany was ordered to Leesburg to reenforce General Evans. Three other companies of the regiment soon joined them and wintered there, doing heavy outpost and scouting duty. Much of this winter he was in com- inand of all four companies, his ranking officers being often absent on account of sickness and other duties.

When General Johnston broke up the lines of which Manassas was the point of supply, and retired towards Gordonsville, the Sec- ond Virginia Cavalry was used to cover the change of base. For four weeks of March and April, 1862, in bad weather and worse roads, they engaged in marching and counter marching, fighting and watching, separated from their baggage and without army com- forts. With no tents, no clothes, no cooking utensils, nothing to make camp life even one-tenth as comfortable as usual, they suf- fered discomforts hard to imagine.

On the reorganization of the company in May, 1862, he was reelected captain. The regiment followed Jackson in his famous campaign down the valley, but Captain Blackford was left behind with typhoid fever, and finally taken home. He did not recover in time to be in the seven days' fighting around Richmond, but in those en- gagements the cavalry took little part. He joined the army again shortly afterward and at once moved up to Gordonsville with Jack- son and was with him at the battle of Slaughter's Mountain. He took a very active part there, as well as in the rest of that bloody campaign, winding up with the

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great battle of Fredericksburg, on the 13th of December, 1862, when his company was engaged on the Confederate right, near Hamilton's Crossing. He says: "The Battle of Fredericksburg was a magnificent sight. I took the more interest in it because it was the home of my childhood and boyhood and I was familiar with every foot of ground. Four of my father's sons were in that battle, but all escaped injury." Jackson asked to have a company detailed for special duty with him around Fredericksburg whose cap- tain was familiar with the country. Cap- tain Blackford, being a native of the place, was selected.

During the winter of 1863 his company was camped near Fredericksburg and did its full share of cavalry duty-the roads heavy with mud and horse feed scarce.

It was while here that he read in a Rich- mond paper the unexpected news that he had been appointed judge advocate of the First Army Corps, upon the application of General Longstreet, and assigned to his staff with the rank of captain of cavalry in the Confederate States army. The rank was the same, but the position was much more desirable. Feeling that after his two years of heavy duty in the line, he could con- scientiously take such a post, he accepted it. He reported at once for duty to General Longstreet, whose headquarters were close by, and remained with him until late in 1864, performing his share of the duties of staff officer, as well as his special duties as judge advocate of the corps. His brother Lancelot was assigned as his clerk and Cap- tain John Cochran, of Charlottesville-after- ward Judge Cochran-was made marshal of the court.

Captain Blackford followed the corps to Suffolk in 1863, then to Gettysburg, back again to Atlanta, and bloody Chickamauga and Knoxville, and then (after a few days leave to stop over in Lynchburg to attend his father in his last illness and burial) to the Wilderness, where Longstreet was shot in 1864. Then on again to the battle of Spottsylvania Court House and the many bloody encounters between Lee and Grant on Grant's march to the lines below Rich- mond. Longstreet soon sufficiently recov- ered from his wounds to rejoin the army and established headquarters about a mile from Petersburg, not far from General Lee's. Here Captain Blackford remained until No-

vember or December, 1864, when he was detailed to Richmond to temporarily relieve Colonel William S. Barton as judge advo- cate general, remaining to aid him, upon his return, until Richmond was evacuated.

During most of the winter of 1864-65 Mrs. Blackford was with him, but on the ist of March, becoming satisfied that Richmond must soon be abandoned, she went to the University of Virginia.

The night of the evacuation of Richmond, Captain Blackford made his way out of the city up the towpath of the James river and Kanawha canal, and in three days reached the university. He found his wife and little daughter Nannie keeping a single room, with a single servant, in one of the pro- fessor's houses. Two days after he joined her they heard of Lee's surrender at Appo- mattox, and for them the war was over. He had $3.50 in money, his house in Lynchburg mortgaged for $4,000, which was more than it was then worth, his horse, and a very scanty supply of clothing for himself and family. His own graphic account of this period of his life makes a picture of historic value. He says :

My wife, Nannie and myself stayed at the Uni- versity, living in one room, and with only three dollars and fifty cents, in current money, for two months. We made the money go very far. I bought two hams and a barrel of flour on credit, giving my bond at 12 months for $25.00 therefor, and with the money we bought some sugar and coffee, which we hoarded. Strange as it may appear, the time passed pleasantly, for all were trying to make the best of everything. There were a great many charming men and women there at the time and a great many pretty girls and quite a number of crippled soldiers who had entered col- lege for awhile. Vegetables and milk were given us daily by Mr. Colston (Mrs. Blackford's brother) and others and we got along very well. I had managed through Mr. John M. Miller, of Lynch- burg, to get some money for mother's use in Lynchburg; and though I had none myself, I was quite happy, except as to how I was to secure bread and meat in the future, but my long experi- ence as soldier had taught me to let the future take care of itself, to a philosophical degree.

This state of things could not last, and I deter- mined to go back to Lynchburg on a prospecting tour. My horse had been making his own living grazing in the University grounds, but he had cast a shoe and I had no money to have it replaced, and I left him until I could have him shod. At that time there was a gravel train which ran out from Lynchburg to Tye River, where they were re- building the bridge. It started back at four o'clock. There was also a sort of hand car which left Covesville at ten o'clock in the morning and con- nected with it. My intention was to reach Coves-

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ville in time to use it, though I did not have any money. I told my wife good-bye at five o'clock and struck out at a swinging gait, without stop- ping a moment until I reached Covesville, where I found the car started at nine o'clock and had been gone some twenty minutes. I did not hesitate a moment, but pushed on, determined to make the whole forty-two miles to Tye River before four o'clock, and I did, only stopping once at Miss Peggy Rives', where I spent ten cents, all I had, in eggs for myself and a negro man whom I over- took, and to whom I promised a ride over from Tye River on the cars if he would carry my coat, vest and watch, which he faithfully did, much to my relief. I reached Tye River at half past three o'clock, having made the forty-two miles, including the stop to boil and cook the eggs in ten and one- half hours on a hot summer day. This is not writ- ten from memory, but from a letter written the next day to my wife. I induced the conductor to permit my colored friend and myself to go over on the flats dead head. It was my first ride over that road as a dead head, yet strange to say I have never paid anything for traveling on it since. I was made a director of the road by Governor Pier- pont the next year and have been, first director, and then counsel, for it ever since.

I got to town by sundown and on the way up to my mother's met Mr. William T. Booker, to whom I told my condition as to finances and asked for a loan, only meaning to borrow five dollars. He drew out five twenty-dollar gold pieces and offered them to me. Seeing no chance for paying him back, I took only twenty dollars, telling him I feared he would never see it again. While talking to him I saw Mr. Abell, a bank officer in Charlottesville, passing down street on horseback. I hailed him and found he was going over to a friend's in Amherst to spend the night and the next day to Charlottesville. I gave him the twenty dollars and he promised to give it to my wife, which he did.

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Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume V, Part 54

Author: Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, 1853-1935, ed. cn Publication date: 1915 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 848

Author: Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, 1853-1935, ed. cn
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 848