Belle Montgomery
2nd Lieutenant
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2017
- Location
- 44022
Hamilton Lombard isn’t a Civil War buff, but like many people, he’s heard the story of Wilmer McLean, who just couldn’t escape the war.
In 1861, McLean’s farm near Manassas was involved in the First Battle of Bull Run.
Looking to flee the fighting, McLean and his family moved to Appomattox – and wound up being right in the heart of it once again. In 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant – in McLean’s house.
It was with McLean’s plight in the back of his mind that Lombard, a state demographer at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, thought it would be interesting to measure the demographic impact of the Civil War in Virginia.
“What I wanted to know was, on a county level in Virginia, which areas were more impacted?” Lombard said. “Can we actually identify specific counties, specific regions that had more deaths or dislocation than others?
“A lot people would say that most of the military action was between D.C. and Richmond. So I thought, ‘Let’s check that. Are those the areas that were also the most impacted?’”
Using digitized historic census age data and a methodology similar to the one the Cooper Center uses to project future Virginia populations, Lombard made several notable discoveries,...
REST OF ARTICLE:https://news.virginia.edu/content/why-alleghany-county-was-virginia-locality-most-affected-civil-war
In 1861, McLean’s farm near Manassas was involved in the First Battle of Bull Run.
Looking to flee the fighting, McLean and his family moved to Appomattox – and wound up being right in the heart of it once again. In 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant – in McLean’s house.
It was with McLean’s plight in the back of his mind that Lombard, a state demographer at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, thought it would be interesting to measure the demographic impact of the Civil War in Virginia.
“What I wanted to know was, on a county level in Virginia, which areas were more impacted?” Lombard said. “Can we actually identify specific counties, specific regions that had more deaths or dislocation than others?
“A lot people would say that most of the military action was between D.C. and Richmond. So I thought, ‘Let’s check that. Are those the areas that were also the most impacted?’”
Using digitized historic census age data and a methodology similar to the one the Cooper Center uses to project future Virginia populations, Lombard made several notable discoveries,...
REST OF ARTICLE:https://news.virginia.edu/content/why-alleghany-county-was-virginia-locality-most-affected-civil-war