author

Richard Irby

1825–1902

A Virginia planter, soldier, and memoirist, he left behind a firsthand account of local life and Civil War service. His recollections helped preserve the history of Nottoway County and the men of the Army of Northern Virginia.

1 Audiobook

History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia

History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia

by Richard Irby

About the author

Born in 1825 and later known as Captain Richard Irby, he is remembered chiefly for the papers collected in The Captain Remembers, published after his death in 1975. That volume presents his letters and essays and describes his life in Nottoway County, Virginia.

The surviving record portrays him as a member of the Nottoway Grays, Company G, 18th Virginia Regiment, in the Army of Northern Virginia. Sources connected with the book also note that he was wounded at the First Battle of Manassas.

Irby died in 1902. In the material preserved under his name, he emerges less as a literary stylist than as a valuable eyewitness whose memories offer a personal window into nineteenth-century Virginia.