Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Christiancy and Pickett families span the years 1835-1998 and consist of correspondence, writings, photographs, military papers, notes, genealogical material, estate papers, newspaper clippings, an account of monies, and a diary, chiefly relating to the Civil War.
The Christiancy family papers include letters written from 1862 to 1864 by Henry Clay Christiancy (1841-1925) and his brother James Isaac Christiancy (1843-1899) who were Union army officers from Michigan serving in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. Henry wrote mostly to his wife, Charlotte Elizabeth "Libbie" Brigham Christiancy, and James to his father, Isaac Peckham Christiancy. Included also is an annotated transcription of Henry's diary from 1862 to 1864 which also contains photographs and maps. In 1863, James Christiancy became General George Armstrong Custer's adjutant. His letter dated May 23, 1864, contains "Rebel trophies" consisting of a star cut from the uniform of Colonel H. Clay Pate of the Fifth Virginia Cavalry, a bar cut from the uniform of a lieutenant, and a postage stamp.
Pickett family papers consist of notebooks relating to Confederate General George E. Pickett (1825-1875) and his wife, La Salle Corbell Pickett, and the general's military certificates. The notebooks, 1835-1998, include original correspondence, transcriptions, writings, newspaper clippings, notes, pamphlets, genealogy, photographs, and estate papers. A majority of the items relate to Pickett's "Charge" at the Battle of Gettysburg. Included also is an 1837 account of money paid to invalids, widows, and children kept by J. C. (James Charmberlayne) Pickett, an auditor with the United States Department of the Treasury. The twentieth-century correspondence was mostly written to and from George E. Pickett (1891 or 2-1959) about his grandparents and Pickett family genealogy. In 1998, the ashes of La Salle Corbell Pickett were reinterred next to her husband's grave in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
The two families became related when George E. Pickett (1864-1911), married Henry Clay Christiancy's daughter, Ida Elizabeth, in 1891.