author
Richard Irby
1825–1902
A Virginia writer and local historian, he left behind vivid firsthand accounts of 19th-century life, the Civil War, and the growth of Randolph-Macon College. His books are especially valued for preserving the voices, places, and institutions of his home state.
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About the author
Born in 1825 and dying in 1902, Richard Irby is best remembered as a Virginia author whose work preserved regional history in careful, firsthand detail.
His best-known books include History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia: The Oldest Incorporated Methodist College in America and Historical Sketches of the Nottoway Grays, Afterwards Company G, Eighteenth Virginia Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia. The Randolph-Macon history identifies him as “Richard Irby (A. B. 1844),” linking him closely to the college whose story he recorded.
Irby wrote less like a literary stylist and more like a devoted witness. His surviving work focuses on memory, institutions, and lived experience, making it especially useful for readers interested in Virginia history, Methodist education, and personal perspectives on the Civil War era.