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Preferred citation: [Identification of item], William Beverley Pettit Correspondence, Coll. 0199, Special Collections and Archives, James G. Leyburn Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA. In some cases the citation format may vary. Please contact Special Collections staff to verify the appropriate format.
Gift of J. Nathaniel Hamrick.
William B. Pettit, an attorney from Fluvanna, Va., was Commonwealth's Attorney for the district, 1864-1872; President of the Virginia Bar Association, 1898; and member of the State Constitutional Convention, 1901-1902.
This is a collection of correspondence between William B. Pettit and his wife Arabella ('Bell') with scattered letters from other friends and relatives. The letters that date from 1850 to March 1862 include correspondence between husband and wife while Pettit was away on business. The war letters begin in March 1862 and end with Pettit's last war letter to his wife on March 3, 1864. After that date there are letters from Pembroke, the Pettit's son, while he attended school at Ashland, Va. The turn of the century correspondence concerns Confederate Veterans' activities and post-war business correspondence. Also included are newspaper clippings, one photograph, and the obituary of William B. Pettit (1905). The collection also includes Pettit's Civil War manuscript diary, 1862-1864, and account book. These two books are bound together.