Letters From Albion Martin

Albion Martin

David Rutherford Note: These eleven letters were first transcribed from the originals by Carolyn Martin Rutherford in 1971. Recently I decided to convert the typed transcriptions into computer text files and word processor files. While doing so, I examined the original letters when passages of the typed transcriptions seemed odd, did not make sense, or had obvious grammatical or spelling errors. I found that Carolyn Rutherford had transcribed the passages exactly - including errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation and grammar made while writing the original letters. Therefore these errors you may notice in the letters, for the most part, were made by the original author. Indecipherable passages have been indicated by a string of dots (......).

I did my best to convert the typed transcriptions into computer files as accurately as possible. I may have inadvertently corrected errors in spelling, punctuation and capitalization which appeared in the original letters and first transcription. Also, I may have made typographical errors that were not noticed during the proof reading of the files. In just a few instances, I altered a word or two where I felt the first transcription was misinterpreted.

The 1971 transcriptions of most of these letters were included in the book, 'A Boy of Old Shenandoah', written by Robert Hugh Martin and published in 1977 (MacClean Publishing) through the efforts of his daughter, Carolyn Martin Rutherford. The book is a short collection of accounts depicting the boyhood events in the life of Robert Hugh Martin, my great-grandfather, who grew up in the Shenandoah Valley during and following the War Between the States. Included in the book are several accounts involving his father's military activities. One involves an account of the boy's brief inclusion in the retreat of Confederate wagon trains up the valley following a battlefield defeat in 1864. Another account briefly portrays Albion Martin's circumstances as the war ended. It is worth reading if you have any interest in the events of the War Between the States in the Shenandoah Valley. There are several eyewitness accounts of military events in the book, all of them through the eyes of a young boy whose 2nd floor balcony over the Valley Pike gave him a front row seat to the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of the Civil War.

In regards to the content of the A. Martin letters, the person named 'Hugh' who is mentioned a few times is the younger brother of Albion Martin's wife, Anne Gillespie (Koontz) Martin. Hugh Ramsey Thompson Koontz served in the Seventh Virginia Cavalry Regiment and attained the rank of Captain. According to historical accounts and family tradition, he was killed at Mount Clifton (Shenandoah County, near Mount Jackson) leading a charge against a detachment of General Sheridan's troops guarding barn and mill burners in October 1864.