author
Charles Minor Blackford
A Virginia lawyer turned memoirist, he left behind vivid firsthand writing about life in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. His letters and recollections are still valued for their detail, immediacy, and human perspective.
1 Audiobook
The Valley of the Masters
by Charles Minor Blackford
About the author
Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1833, Charles Minor Blackford built a career as a lawyer and later became known as a writer of Civil War reminiscence. He studied at the University of Virginia, practiced law in Lynchburg, and remained active in public and professional life there for many years.
During the Civil War, Blackford served with the Confederate army and saw major campaigns from Manassas to Gettysburg and Appomattox. The wartime letters he wrote to his wife, Susan Leigh Blackford, and the memoir material preserved from those years became the basis for the work readers know best, Letters from Lee's Army; or, Memoirs of Life in and Out of the Army in Virginia During the War Between the States.
What makes his writing stand out is its closeness to everyday experience. Rather than offering only grand military history, Blackford's work helps readers picture camp life, marching, hardship, and the emotional strain of war, which is why his recollections continue to interest both general readers and Civil War historians.