Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/446

 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