Dates: 1906
Collection Number: MS 110
Physical Location: Archive Room File Cabinet
Extent: 1 folder.
Access Restrictions: Collection is open to research
User Restrictions: No restrictions
Preferred Citation: Richard J. Hancock Letters, MS 110, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Va.
Acquisition Information: Gift, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Conrad, 2005 Beecham Circle, Raleigh, NC 27607, 1987.
Biographical/Historical Information: Richard Johnson Hancock (1838-1912) was born in Limestone County, Alabama. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Bossier Volunteers at Bellevue, Louisiana. He was a captain under Stonewall Jackson during the Valley Campaign. Hancock was wounded during the second battle of Manassas. He went to a hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia where he met his future wife Thomasia Overton Harris. After the Civil War, he returned to Charlottesville and married Thomasia in Albemarle County, Virginia in 1864. Her family owned the Ellerslie Plantation in Albemarle County and the plantation came to the Hancock family after their marriage. Richard Hancock established a horse stud farm at Ellerslie, and his horse, Knight of Ellerslie, won the 1884 Preakness Stakes. Hancock died at Ellerslie on April 19, 1912 and was buried in the family cemetery on the property.
Scope and Content: This collection contains three letters from Richard J. Hancock of Ellerslie Farm in Albemarle County, Virginia, to his friend and fellow Confederate soldier Newton Monroe Berryman of Albany, Shackelford County, Texas. The letters are dated 6 January, 22 June, and 30 July, 1906 and are written on Ellerslie letterhead. Hancock discusses his service in the Confederacy and conditions in Charlottesville, Virginia after the war.
Subjects:
- 1. Autobiography.
- 2. Civil War.
- Social Life and Customs.
