Administrative Information

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Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Chumbley Family Papers, 1862, 1864. Accession 51458. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Lewis Miller, Carmel, Indiana, 5 December 2014.

Biographical Information

William Allen Chumbley was born on 22 October 1841. During the Civil War, he served with the 4th Virginia Infantry in Companies C, D, and G, rising to the rank of sergeant, and was wounded at the Battle of Payne's Farm in late November 1863. After the war, he married Mary Crockett Hickman (b. 29 August 1846) on 11 January 1866. The couple raised ten children at their home near Fairlawn, Pulaski County, Virginia. William Allen Chumbley died on 22 January 1917, and Mary Crockett Hickman Chumbley on 29 April 1917.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1862-1864 and circa 1896, of the Chumbley family of Pulaski County, Virginia , include letters, 1862 and 1864, from William Allen Chumbley (1841-1917) to his future wife, Mary "Mollie" Crockett Hickman (1846-1917), and one letter, 10 October 1864, from Mary to William, written while he was serving with the 4th Virginia Infantry and she was studying at Hollins Institute. William's letters discuss mutual friends, military action including fighting at Strasburg and the Third Battle of Winchester, and his devotion to her. Mary's letter gives news of friends and family, and tells of the neighborhood's relief when dire news about the fate of Douthat's Battery proved to be in error. William's first two letters (2 January 1862 and 26 September 1864) are included in original and transcript form. The second two letters (Mary's letter and the last from William, 16 October 1864) are represented only in transcript form. Also included is a family portrait, taken circa 1896, showing William and Mary Chumbley surrounded by their ten children in the yard of their home near Fairlawn, Pulaski County, Virginia, and background information provided by the donor of the collection.