1862 April 26 Lynchburg,Va.

[from the diary of William M. Blackford of Lynchburg, Va, former diplomat, bank officer and editor, with five sons in the Confederate Army]

Saturday 26  cloudy & gloomy mor
-ning, after a nights steady rain.  It
rained hard at intervals and was
altogether as uncomfortable a day
as one wd [?] wish to see.  I met on the
street Sue, Mrs Smith and a young
soldier on the way to the Orange House
to see L. R. H. Lee of 2 Regt, who
was wounded at Kernstown.  He was
acquainted with Mrs. Louthan & sent
his young friend Mr Howell to her
to beg she would procure lodgings for
him in a private boarding house.  Sue
went to Mrs. Yancy & she agreed
to take him as a guest, provided Mr
Y did not object--arrangements
were made for a spring wagon to
go for him at 12 oclock.  I left
the ladies with him.  Shortly after
Sue called and expressed some doubt
about Mrs. Ys taking him and wan
ted to know whether we could not
-I ran home & talked the matter over
with Mary & we agreed to do so in
case of necessity--Sue found a note
from Mrs Y on her return, declining
to take him.  I hastened to the Orange
House & found him already in the
wagon and about to start for the
house of Mrs. Y.  What a pretty state of
things it would have been were he to
have reached there--I had him sent
to our Hous  house and with the assis
-tance of two or three passerby got him
up to  his chamber.  He is a man of
fine talents, decided piety  and great
strength of character.  He married a
daughter of the late Wm. Bryn Page of
Page Brook--a niece of Bishop Alder
son--the soldier detailed to wait on
him is a very nice young gentleman
named Howell.  It puts us to much
inconvenience, at the moment, as
Peggy is laid up-but there is no
help for it, and we consider it a duty
Painful reports that N. Orleans has
fallen into the hands of the enemy
--I am incredulous & have avowed
my total disbelief of the story--but
I find I am singular and that most
people credit it.  The government has
no [?] & the story comes  [?]
-It will be almost a fatal blow if
it be true.--Button--an old friend
of Mr Lee called to see him.  He had
been looking for him, a day or two ago
in the hospitals to take him to his house.
Lee was elected to supply a vacancy
in the convention and sat in that body
for some time.  He is a son of Edmund
J. Lee, formerly of Alexia and nephew
of Light Horse Harry of the Revolution
and a cousin therefore of Gen. R. E. Lee

MSS 4763