Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Correspondence of the King and Leftwich Families, Accession #2798 , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the University of Virginia Library by Nancy King Peck, Lynchburg, Virginia, on October 16, 1947.

Biographical/Historical Information

Much of the correspondence from William King to his wife, Anne, was written during the Civil War and describes some of his camp and battle experiences as a Confederate artilleryman, June 1861-April 1862. Apparently after serving two months as a gunner's mate in the naval battery at Manassas, King was transferred to the army artillery and attached to General Phillip St. George Cocke's brigade.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of twenty-seven items, ca. 1844-1867, n.d., chiefly the correspondence of William King and his wife, Anne Leftwich King, of Saltville, Virginia, but also including Confederate money from Virginia and North Carolina (1862), a map of the British Isles and Europe with a genealogical notation (n.d.), and a printed sketch of William King (1769-1808), the original emigrant from Ireland (n.d.).

In particular, King mentions their son, William, born on November 11, 1861, his membership in Latham's Battery, and an engagement with Federal troops near Centreville, Virginia, on December 18 (1861 December 19). After false reports of enemy activity at Fredericksburg, King believes they are to go by railroad to Richmond. He also writes about the death of his brother and wants his wife to write to his uncle Charlie to bring his remains to be buried at the Abingdon cemetery (1862 April 10). Writing from Saltville, Virginia, King states that the four [salt?] furnaces are working very well (1863 Jun 7).

In a letter from Greenville, Tennessee, where King is trying to sell a train of ten cars loaded with salt, he describes the bad economic conditions of the area with nearly all of the business houses closed, with many of the citizens having left the area with the Federal army, almost no livestock to be seen between Greenville and Bristol, many cases of "bushwhacking" perpetrated by deserters from both armies of the Civil War, the occurrence of smallpox in the Union army and in the local hospital, General Longstreet's army advancing slowly towards Knoxville, and his concern to have their daughter, Lizzie, vaccinated against smallpox (1864 January 30).

King, having bought a carload of leather in Wytheville, arrived in Saltville, Virginia, where he loaded three train cars with salt to take on into Tennessee. He was unable to leave right away because the railroad water tanks were frozen and could not furnish water for their extra train. When able to leave, King hoped to travel as far as New Market, Tennessee, where General James Longstreet had his present headquarters (1864 February 19). He mentions that, if the Legislature should adopt the suggestions of its joint committee as to the seizure of the Charles Scott Salt Furnace to be worked by Mr. Clarkson for the benefit of the state and the Confederacy, he will have to enter the army (1864 March 6).

King, apparently serving in the army again, writes from a camp near Saltville, Virginia, of the passage of Generals Jubal Early and John Echols by Glade Spring towards Bristol, of reports of Yankees in Tennessee moving towards Saltville or North Carolina, of everybody capable of bearing arms being called upon to report for duty, that his artillery pieces have not arrived from Wytheville, and says of Lee's army, "General Lee's army may be disintegrated but each fragment will constitute a guerilla band who will fight on and live by the plunder of friend and foe" (1865 Mar 25).

Other letters include material on the King and Leftwich families, on local salt works, and other economic and social conditions in southwestern Virginia and East Tennessee. William King, Jr. writes to his sister, Sarah C. King, about the death of their youngest brother (1844 Jul 19); and John Ramage writes three letters to William King, on business matters concerning the salt works (1848 August 16, September 11, & 1850 February 6).