Captain T. G. Popham (b. 1842?) was a Confederate soldier from Rapphannock County, Va. Popham's family owned a cotton plantation and slaves. From June 1863 to April 1865, Popham commanded Company B of the 7th Virginia Infantry Regiment. Popham had joined the regiment on the first day of the battle of First Manassas. Popham saw service at Williamsburg; Seven Pines; Frayser's Farm; Second Manassas; South Mountain; Antietam; Fredericksburg; at the garrison at Smithville, N.C.; near New Bern; during the North Carolina campaign; Gettysburg; in the second North Carolina campaign; Drewry's Bluff; Milford Station; Cold Harbor; on the Petersburg-Howlett Line; Dinwiddie Court House; Five Forks; and Sayler's Creek. The collection consists of five letters, 1863-1864 and undated, from T. G. Popham to his mother, Mrs. E. A Popham; a torn piece of paper giving his mother's address at Slate Mills in Rappahannock County, Va.; and a tintype of T. G. Popham and his wife Cara, both in civilian clothes, she wearing his kepi. In his letters, Popham expressed concern for the welfare of his family in northern Virginia and hoped there had not been much devastation of crops or stock in the Rappahhanock and Culpeper regions. Popham described the New Bern, N.C., area as pleasant, but poor. At Smithville, N.C., he noted the relative ineffectiveness of the Federal blockade to prevent Confederate ships from reaching Nassau or Bermuda. Popham discussed General Robert E. Lee and General Richard Ewell's harassment of Federal troops near Warrenton, Va., in 1863 and the Confederates' defense of Richmond, Va., in 1864. Popham also discussed military life, lamenting the scarcity and inflated prices of provisions and the scarcity and value of horses in the Confederacy.
