Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Henry T. Blanchard Civil War Letter, Accession 10756-a, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This document was purchased on December 13, 1996.

Funding Note

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

Scope and Content

This two item collection consists of an October 16, 1863 letter from Union Corporal Henry T. Blanchard (member, Company K, Second Rhode Island Infantry Volunteers, VI Corps, Army of the Potomac ) to his mother, Mrs. Erastus E. Blanchard of Providence, Rhode Island , and a modern typescript.

Henry T. Blanchard writes from "a line of battle" between Centreville and Chantilly, Virginia , during the Bristoe Station Campaign [October 9-22, 1863]. He describes the VI Corps ' activities and marching [ Army of the Potomac , Major General John Sedgwick , VI Corps; Third Division , Brigadier General Henry D. Terry ; Second Brigade, Brigadier General Henry L. Eustis ; 2nd Rhode Island , Colonel Horatio Rogers, Jr. ) from October 13 to 16, 1863.

Henry T. Blanchard claims the VI Corps captured 500 Confederate prisoners on October 14 after an unsuccessful attack by Lieutenant General A. P. Hill , III Army Corps, Army of Northern Virginia , against the rearguard of Union General George G. Meade 's Army of the Potomac . However, the VI Corps ' adjutant general was believed to have been captured on the 15th; Blanchard also mentions that Major General George Sykes ' V Corps fought the rebels that same day. He concludes this letter by reporting the army is preparing for another attack as firing is heard in the distance, his expectations of letters, and sends love to his family.

For information on this campaign, researchers should consult William D. Henderson , The Road to Bristoe Station: Campaigning With Lee and Meade, August 1-October 20, 1863 ( Lynchburg, Virginia : H. E. Howard, Inc. , 1987).