1862 May 27 Lynchburg, Va.

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

 Tuesday 27  The details of Jacksons opera
tions in the Valley came in  better &
better- Never was an army so entirely
routed and demoralized with so little
loss of life to the victorious party--The
amt. of stores of all kinds captured is
enormous.  2500 prisoners--not a feder
al soldier this side of the Potomac
"Honor for Jackson" --the old war cry
is now on every ones mouth.  Af
ter the battler of Kernstown I was almost
the only one who who here did not de
nounce him.  I saw in him the fighting
maniac a [?] with which
most of our generals are not afflicted
--Chas. & Sue spent the day with us.
Whilst at dinner we had a terrible
scare.  The children were playing
hide & seek and Wyndham fell
out of the parlor window on the
grass plot, fully 10 feet--fortunately
he did not light on his head
and was not at all hurt.  This is
the second instance in which my grand
children have made singular escapes
from falls


MSS 4763