Life Behind Confederate Lines in Virginia: The Correspondence of James D. Davidson

LIFE BEHIND CONFEDERATE LINES IN VIRGINIA: The Correspondence of James D. Davidson Edited by Bruce S. Greenawalt Students of the Civil War are well acquainted with diaries and letters by soldiers who fought in the Confederate armies. The correspondence of James Dormán Davidson1 is nevertheless a valuable addition to the literature of the period. Davidson was not a soldier, though he visited the battle sites at Harper's Ferry and Richmond. He was not a high ranking official, though he busied himself preparing his home town for the war effort. Rockbridge County in the Valley of Virginia was not the target of any concerted Union attack, but it did experience minor invasions. Lexington, location of the Virginia Military Institute and Washington College, and seat of Rockbridge County, was never a main theater of operation, but it was close enough to hostile armies to make the war a daily threat. Davidson's correspondents included Virginia Governor John Letcher, a general, government officials, Rockbridge residents outraged by Yankee conduct during a raid, and a letter from his son who for a time was an aide to the governor. Before the war Davidson occupied an important place in Lexington. The son of a local Presbyterian minister, he attended Washington College , then taught school for a brief period while reading law. From 1831 to 1882 he practiced law in Lexington and eventually became known as "our beloved country lawyer." His specialty was the settlement of estates, but he also collected debts for Philadelphia and New York firms, and handled the accounts of such former residents as Hugh Adams, brother-in-law to Cyrus H. McCormick. Davidson lived in a handsome town house near the courthouse and owned a 160 acre farm a few miles from town, where he kept six slaves. Although he was a loyal resident of Lexington, he was not provincial; he realized fully 1 The James D. Davidson Collection consists of 47,000 items which span the years from 1793 to 1908. Housed in the McCormick Collection in the Wisconsin State Historical Society at Madison, it includes twenty-five account books, his son Charles' three letterpress copybooks, and four diaries. Davidson's correspondents for the most part were literate men who made few errors in spelling, and the few mistakes they made through haste or carelessness the editor has corrected. He has also omitted the dashes and commas used in place of periods, changed most abréviations and ampersands, and made capitalization conform to modem usage. Spellings peculiar to the period, such as "labour" for labor, the editor modernized. 205 206CIVIL WAR HISTORY the limitations of the town. Until Lexington secured a railroad connection life would continue to be difficult. Agriculture in Rockbridge County was not sufficient to employ its people or to offer advancement. Davidson's own brothers had to leave home to find employment. Charles Baker and Alexander H. Davidson went to the old Northwest and settled in Indiana; Henry Gamble moved to Richmond where he taught school and practiced medicine. The exodus of native sons would continue until mining, railroads, and manufacturing stimulated the area. In 1836 Davidson's trip through Indiana, Illinois, down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, across the lower South and up the Atlantic seacoast, together with his travel in Europe and his 1851 visit to the London World's Fair, had shown him areas with better soil, greater wealth, manufacturing, and expanding economic opportunities for the enterprising. Davidson knew the shortcomings of Rockbridge County, and he turned his energy in great part to correcting them. Davidson was a useful citizen who contributed his talents to his community , and left an impression on Virginia which only gradually disappeared . As a youth he taught school and published Mountain Laurel, a literary magazine which expired after a short life. He was a trustee of Washington College and served on the Board of the Virginia Western Lunatic Asylum. During the Civil War his five sons served in the Confederate army, while he organized the Homeguard in Rockbridge County and served as commissary agent for Virginia troops. After the war he urged reconciliation with the victorious North, but simultaneously led campaigns for monuments to honor the memory...