Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

A Guide to a Adana Bocock Letter, Accession 11249, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This letter was purchased by the Special Collections Department on July 5, 1996.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This May 11, 1861 letter of Adana Bocock , Fincastle, Virginia , to "My Dear Augusta," describes life at an unidentified female academy. She mentions that she and her classmates made uniforms for the Fincastle Rifles , a Confederate infantry company, and the mustering of a mock company of her classmates as "the Female Dare Devils." Bocock also mentions a Mr. Gould (her teacher) and her studies in "Arithmetic, Philosophy, Grammar, Dictionary, Rhetoric and French." [Board meetings and advertisements for a "Fincastle Female Academy" and a "Fincastle Female Seminary" appear in the September 1, 1848 (page 4, column 3) and October 22, 1858 (page 3, column 4) issues of The Valley Whig, published in Fincastle, Botetourt County.]

The Fincastle Rifes were Company D of the 11th Virginia Infantry Regiment. As the Fincastle Rifles of Botetourt County the unit was founded in December 1859 in response to John Brown's Harpers Ferry raid. The 11th was reorganized at Lynchburg in May 1861 and became a Confederate regiment in July. Its members were from the counties of Botetourt, Campbell, Culpeper, Fauquier, Montgomery, and Rockbridge. The regiment fought in many of the Army of Northern Virginia's major campaigns (First and Second Manassas, Williamsburg, Suffolk, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg) until it surrendered at Sayler's Creek in April 1865.