Alexander Tedford "Ted" Barclay correspondence

Collection

Identifier: WLU-Coll-0002

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Scope and Contents

This collection includes original letters and typescript copies of letters Ted Barclay sent to his family in Lexington, Virginia during the American Civil War. Subjects include information about the activities of the Liberty Hall Volunteers of the Stonewall Brigade in major battles within Virginia; accounts of life in Confederate camp; information about food, clothing, diseases, religious services, attractive women, and deaths of friends while serving with the Volunteers; and accounts of his life as a Union prisoner at Fort Delaware. These letters have been published in a volume edited by Charles Turner, Ted Barclay, Liberty Hall Volunteers: Letters from the Stonewall Brigade (1861-1864).

Dates

Creation: 1861-1864

Conditions Governing Use

The materials from Washington and Lee University Special Collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used should be fully credited with the source. Permission for publication of this material, in part or in full, must be secured with the Head of Special Collections.

Biographical / Historical

Alexander Tedford "Ted" Barclay, son of Col. A. T. Barclay and Mary Eleanor Paxton, was born in 1844 about one mile west of Lexington, Virginia. He entered Washington College (Washington and Lee University) at the age of 15. In the spring of 1861, he joined the Liberty Hall Volunteers and served with the Stonewall Brigade until he was captured at Spotsylvania Court House in 1864.

Returning to Lexington in 1865, he engaged in various enterprises. He was manager of the family farm and a participant in the movement to extend the Valley Railroad from Winchester to Lexington. In 1873 with Elihu H. Barclay and James T. Patton, he bought and published The Rockbridge Citizen which was consolidated in 1874 with the Lexington Gazette. He was editor of this newspaper for 11 years. He was also manager of the Lexington Manufacturing Company and president of the Buena Vista Improvement Company.

For 30 years, Barclay served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington and Lee University, beginning his service in 1885.

He married Virginia Borden Moore in 1876. Barclay died in November 1915.