| The Waddell family lived in Staunton in Augusta County, Virginia. Joseph Waddell, along with his uncle Lytletton Waddell and later his brother Legh, purchased the Staunton Spectator in 1848, but Joseph sold his interest in 1860. Joseph married Virginia McClung in 1853 and soon after set up their household on the farm of the widower William M. Tate. Tate's children, Jimmy, Nanny, and Mattie, became the Waddell's adopted children and moved with them to town when the Waddell's purchased a house in 1857 with Joseph's sister Kate. The Waddell family owned a few slaves, including their cook Selena, her husband Philip, and her daughter Jenny. Though several members of the Waddell family saw battle in the Confederate military during the Civil War, Joseph remained in Staunton, performing work for the Quartermaster Department. After the war, Joseph Waddell became active in local politics, opposing black suffrage and "negro domination." Selena and Philip Brown remained in the Waddell household as domestic servants and Kate Waddell left to marry William M. Tate. |
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Waddell Household: 1860 Census | 1860 Slaveowner Census | 1870 Census | Military Service
Before the war, Waddell owned and edited a newspaper in Augusta County, Virginia, the Staunton Spectator. In the prewar entries of his diary, Joseph A. Waddell describes everyday happenings of family and community life as well as extraordinary events like feared slave uprisings.
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During the war years, Joseph A. Waddell recorded his views on slavery, abolition, politics, secession, and the war in his diary with great detail and clarity. His commentary ranged from perceptive political observation to extensive battlefield rumors. Surrounded by hardship and tragedy, he expressed anxiety for loved ones separated by war and gratitude for those close at home. He bemoaned the institution of slavery, but feared for the fate of an inferior people left to their own devices. Through the war, Waddell remained a believer in the Confederate cause, but became increasingly depressed about its chances of success.
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In the months after the end of the Civil War, Joseph A. Waddell described the looting of Confederate property in Staunton, occupation by Union military authority, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Waddell became increasingly disturbed by the unruly behavior of ungrateful "negroes" emboldened by the presence of the Yankee occupiers. Toward the end of his diary, Waddell discussed early attempts to restore Virginia to the Union, an endeavor in which he desperately wanted to participate. Waddell ended his diary in October 1865 when he ran out of writing paper.
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Franklin County Personal Papers: Eve of War | War Years | Aftermath
Augusta County Personal Papers: Eve of War | War Years | Aftermath
