"Saw Horrors Enough For a Century:" Lt. Blackford Writes About the Seven Days Battles-- Part 1

From the July 12, 2012, Civil War Day By Day from the UNC Library.

A letter written by Benjamin Lewis Blackford July 12, 1862, to his mother from a camp near Chesterfield, Virginia, where he was serving as a topographical engineer for the Confederate Army. In it, he wrote about the carnage he had observed in the aftermath of the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond.

I have had extensive extracts from a couple letters he wrote in October 1863 concerning his transfer to Wilmington, North Carolina, in my Running the Blockade Civil War Navy Blog, including today. Blackford was a very literate and observant person.

"I could write you a very interesting letter if I was not so busy-- in fact I have been storing up the incidents of the last two days with a special view of spinning them them into a long yarn home, but this topographical business keeps me at work night & day, week days & Sundays."

More to Come.  --Old Secesh