A Confederate officer killed.
On Thursday of last week
Captain John C. Blackford, a daring and intrepid scout, attached to the forces in the
Valley of Virginia, lost his life in an engagement with the
Yankees at
Newtown, in Frederick county.
He had been sent down by
General Early to ascertain something with reference to the enemy's movements and numbers in the
Lower Valley.
With his party he had reached
Newtown, where he got into an encounter with the enemy, and was killed.--
Col. Boyd, who commanded the
Yankee forces, had his body taken up and sent to
Jefferson county to his friends, remarking at the time that "he was a brave man, and deserved an honorable interment."
The circumstances connected with his death, as related to us, are as follows:
Capt. Blackford, with three of his men, had stopped at a public house in
Newtown to warm themselves.
They had not been long in the room before it was entered by eight men dressed in Confederate uniform.
Blackford soon discovered that they were Yankees in disguise, and at once left the house with his men, and started for their horses.
The party of eight men followed them out, and commenced a fire upon them.
The fire was returned by
Blackford's party, and two of the enemy killed, but in the firing
Capt. B. himself was shot down.
The balance of his party escaped, although the town was soon filled with Yankee troops.
Capt. Blackford was quite a young man, and had been in the service since the commencement of the war. For a long time he was a scout for the lamented
Ashby, and possessed the confidence of his gallant chief.
About two months ago he was betrayed and captured along with a party of his men, near
Martinsburg, and taken to
Fort McHenry.
From this prison he subsequently escaped, and came back to his native State with renewed determination to avenge the wrongs there heaped upon him and his comrades.
