Robert Preston papers

Robert Taylor Preston (1809-80)

Papers, 1849-1871, n.d., 0.2 cu. ft., Ms92-003

History:

Robert Taylor Preston was born at Smithfield Plantation in Blacksburg, Virginia, in 1809. He was a student at Hampden-Sydney College from 1825 to 1828. He qualified as a captain of the 75th Regiment of militia in 1830 and was commissioned as justice of the peace of Montgomery County in 1837. He built his residence "Solitude" in the early 1830s, and bequeathed the building to the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Virginia Tech, after his death. At the start of the Civil War he was appointed Colonel of volunteers in the Provisional Army of Virginia, and in July 1861 was appointed colonel of the 28th Virginia Infantry, Confederate States of America, where he served until the infantry's reorganization in April 1862. Beginning in August 1864 he served as lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 4th Virginia Reserves, and surrendered with the troops of General J. E. Johnston in North Carolina in April 1865. After the war he continued to reside at Solitude until his death in 1880.

Scope and Content:

The collection consists of 218 letters, military orders, notes, certificates of military appointments, and other items, collected or created by Preston between 1849 and 1871, with the majority from the period between May 1861 and December 1862. The materials include several military orders signed by such members of the Confederate Army as Jubal Early, John B. Floyd, and George E. Pickett, as well as orders written by Preston himself. Also included is a manuscript draft of a broadside written by Preston from Solitude on May 13, 1863, as a call to arms to the men of Roanoke and Montgomery County to repel the Union Army which was in the immediate vicinity; and a pardon signed by President Andrew Jackson on September 10, 1865, granting Preston amnesty for his offenses committed in the recent rebellion.

Transcripts of some of the letters are available.

Provenance:

The Robert Taylor Preston papers were donated by the Montgomery County branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in July 1994. Processing of the materials was completed in April 1996 by Christopher Gwaltney, student assistant, and Laura Katz Smith, Manuscripts Curator.

Contents List:

Return to Manuscript Collections guide
Return to Civil War guide
Return to Appalachian history guide
Return to Montgomery County, Virginia, guide

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