VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
During the civil war, the letters he and
Mrs. Blackford wrote constantly to each
other were all preserved. Long afterwards,
by their joint labors, these letters, with ex-
tracts from his father's diary, and some
graphic accounts written by his brother.
Colonel William Blackford, of important
battles in which he had part as a member
of Stuart's stafif, were put together to form
a contemporaneous history of the war, as
seen from the battlefield and from the home.
It was printed in two volumes for private
circulation only, but copies were lodged in
several of the more important libraries of
the East, and these volumes have frequently
been said by close students of history to
contain the best account ever written of the
Civil War.
His address on the "Campaign and Battle of Lynchburg," delivered to his comrades of the Garland Rodes Camp of Confederate Veterans, on July i8, 1901, was printed in book form, and is a most treasured memoir of that stirring event. Another of his nota- ble contributions to literature was his famous address on "The Trial and Trials of Jefferson Davis," delivered by him at the annual meeting of the X'irginia State Bar Association in 1900. and subsequently print- ed and widely read.
In private life, in the home circle, and among his friends. Captain Blackford was a most lovable man. Wherever he happened to be, in the presence of a few friends, or in social assemblage, he was much sought after. His brilliant intellect and courtesy of manner made him a most delightful com- panion, while his fund of information, his powers of conversation, and his charm as a raconteur, rendered him at all times enter- taining. His hospitable home was the cen- ter of the social life of Lynchburg. With a spirit of youthfulness that advancing years could never dull, he entered heartily into the enterprises of his younger friends, and many were the long and health-giving walks that he took through his section of Virginia, with parties of young people for his com- panions, none of whom could outstrip him as a pedestrian. He spent hours of happy work in. greetdiouse and garden, and a day rarely passed that someone was not glad- dened by flowers of his growing. Plants and blossoms were sent in generous abun- dance wherever he thought they might give pleasure.
His pul)lic spirit stood the test of every
sacrifice, for city, for church and for state.
His contemporaries paid tribute to his intel-
lect, his industry, his fair dealing, ancl clean
living, with many honorable rewards of per-
sonal confidence and public trust. Judged
alone by outward signs of success, his life
was rich in achievement, but these are not
the things that mark him a great m»an,
destined to live after his name is forgotten;
these are not the things that planted his in-
fluence deep in his community to spring up
in countless and continuing evidences of
civic righteousness. He lives on in the lives
of his townspeople because his energies
were borne to achievement on a resistless
current of human kindness ; because his
spirit was kept young by the vitalizing
power of sympathetic understanding ; be-
cause he held himself responsible as his
"brother's keeper." The gospel of service
that he lived by has been spread, by the
lives of such men as he, from the few. to
the many, who can understand the motives
which impelled him to spend himself in un-
selfish effort for others. Rarely met, even
yet, is the successful man of affairs who is
able and always willing to lay aside his own
interests to lend sympathetic ear and help-
ing hand to the smallest trouble, and then
make up lost time by light of midnight oil.
It is not too much to claim for him that
quite half of his life in its prime was given
over to little acts of kindness, so cordially
and simply done that even the beneficiaries
could not gauge the value or the cost. He
was always ready to use his powerful in-
fluence to give young men their start in the
community where he had carved out his
own pla^e by a force and industry few could
emulate. He was so easily approachable
that they flocked about him ; so bouyantly
encouragmg, they were inspired to their
best effort ; and so resourceful, they were
always given opportunity to prove them-
selves. The man who felt he was "down
and out," began the upward climb again
under the motive power of Captain Black-
ford's faith in him, and the consciousness
that, if necessarv, faith would be proved by
helpful deed. He was tenderly sympathetic
toward the aged and unfortunate, charitable
toward frailties in others, and ready always
to hear whatsoever of woes or problems,
hopes or plans were brought to him. Hear-
ing them, he was never satisfied with giving
