A Guide to the Richard J. Hancock Letters, 1906, #MS 110

Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society
200 Second Street, NE
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Phone: (434) 296-1492
URL: https://albemarlehistory.org
Email: library@albemarlehistory.org

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Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Richard J. Hancock Letters, MS 110, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Virginia

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Conrad, Raleigh, North Carolina

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 social conditions in Charlottesville, Virginia after the war.