This is the story of the 1854 murder of VMI Cadet Tom Blackburn, the trials that followed, and the impact of those events on young men and women who would all too soon face the larger trials of the American Civil War.

Part 9: Fateful Decision

" . . . repel wrong, prevent ignominy, and resent aggression."
Francis Thomas

"Never do a wrong thing to make a friend, or keep one."
Robert Edward Lee

According to Samuel McDowell Moore, Tom Blackburn left the Moore house on Saturday morning, January 14, 1854, feeling " bound to inform Christian" that he had advised his cousin Mary Evelyn "not to walk with him" to church.

That decision, would kill him.

In a note to Mary Evelyn's father, written the very next day, Moore attributed Tom's decision to his "chivalrous disposition." It was, in fact, a decision defined, shaped, and compelled to action not only by Tom's "disposition", but by the spoken and unspoken demands of his family, friends and peers.

Roommates

James White Humes, Blackburn's friend and classmate, not only believed he was first to tell Tom Blackburn that a man of unsavory reputation had made "advances" toward his cousin. He believed he was honor bound to do so.

Humes was not however, Blackburn's only source of information or pressure to behave "honorably."

In 1854 Blackburn shared room 13 of the "new" VMI barracks with four other popular and demanding cadets.

Two of them, Charles Edward Lightfoot and Robert Preston ("Kit") Carson were seniors, VMI First Classmen, like Blackburn himself.

"Charley" Lightfoot, was First Captain of the Corps, the highest ranking cadet officer. Like Blackburn he was well known, well-connected, very popular and had come perilously close to dismissal from the Institute.

Unlike Blackburn, Lightfoot's problems did not take the form of one or two big things, but many small ones: namely demerits, ninety-nine of them, just one short of automatic dismissal.

Despite (or, perhaps because) of those dubious achievements, Lightfoot's classmates had elected him (and Blackburn) to the Board of Managers for the 1853 graduation ball..

"Kit" Carson had the best grades in room 13. He would finish third in the class of 1854, behind James Lane and Richard Taylor. Taylor's younger brother (class of '57) would become Robert E. Lee's most famous adjutant. Troops from one of "Little Jim" Lane's regiments would shoot Stonewall Jackson..

Carson was also one of a large contingent of Cadets from Abingdon, Virginia . Among them was none other than James White Humes, who had not only told Blackburn that Christian had made "unwelcome" advances toward his cousin, but had told Christian that Mary Evelyn had become vocal about her dislike of him..

George Buck of Berkeley Springs was room 13's junior, or Second Classman. "Kit" Carson described him as " . . . a nervous, cracked-voice sort of a fellow" who, when asked his name, " . . . invariably answered, "G. Buck, by Gad." Buck, like Carson, was very bright. He would eventually finish medical school and then serve as Lieutenant Colonel of the 37th Virginia.

The youngest roommate was Cadet Hiram Claiborne Burks, one of the Burks of Bedford County and a third cousin (once removed) of Charles Burks Christian.

Like Blackburn and Lightfoot, Burks regularly found himself in trouble. After only a year and five months at VMI he would be dismissed for "excessive demerits."

From the Moore House to Christian's Hotel

As Tom Blackburn walked from the Moore house back to see his roommates and friends on the adjacent VMI campus, he asked his friend (and Mary Evelyn's husband-to-be), Sandy Bruce, what he thought he should do, especially about the passage he had just read in Christian's letter to his cousin describing him as a "calumniator."

Bruce, of course, hadn't read Christian's letter himself, and had heard only selected passages (in Latin by all accounts) read aloud. He had no idea what Blackburn was talking about, until his friend explained the passage (or perhaps, given Bruce's class standing) defined the word for him.).

"After a little consultation," Bruce later testified, "we concluded he had better see Christian" and tell him Tom Blackburn was indeed, "the gentleman" who had advised Mary Evelyn Anderson to stay away from him.

Once Blackburn and Bruce reached the VMI barracks they separated. It would be the last time Bruce saw Tom Blackburn alive.

At some point after Bruce's departure, probably soon after returning to room 13, Blackburn ran into Richard Taylor and tried to solicit his advice in a way that can only be described as obtuse. As Taylor remembered it, Blackburn bent his ear, "endeavoring to plague me because a young lady whom he said I was in love with up town had sent some message or something to him."

Only later would Tayler discover what Blackburn was really talking about.

"Kit" Carson, ran into Blackburn in the VMI barracks some time between noon and 1:00 p.m.

Blackburn spoke frankly to Carson, telling him directly that he'd seen a letter from Christian to his cousin Mary Evelyn, that Christian had referred to him as a "calumniator," and that "he had determined to go and tell" Christian that "he had advised his cousin."

Later, around 2:00 p.m., at the VMI mess hall, Blackburn found Cadets James White Humes and J. B. Horner of Warrenton finishing dinner.

"Fellows, you are the very ones I want to see!" he said as he entered the side door of the building. His tone apparently prompted Horner, who had roomed with Blackburn in 1851, to ask him if something was wrong.

Blackburn warmed himself at the mess hall stove and told his story one more time, describing Christian's note as "the most ridiculous thing he ever read . . . " For "delicious nonsense," he concluded, "he had never seen its equal."

Blackburn then asked Humes and Horner if they thought he ought to go to town to confront Christian, man-to-man.

Humes, who was friends with both Christian and Blackburn, encouraged Tom to see Christian immediately.

"I did not think it a matter in which a fight was to feared," Humes later testified, "but, however that might be, justice and honor demanded that Mr. Christian, if he desired it, should know the name of the man who had done him an injury."

Humes also told Blackburn, "From what I have seen of Christian . . . if he did not shut him up about it, or take some notice of it, he would make the whole affair, and his cousin's name in connection with it, a subject of town gossip."

After listening to Humes, Blackburn appeared ready to go.

Horner, however, warned him not to be hasty, especially about going into Lexington alone. Horner "knew" he said, " . . . that if Christian resented the communication made by Blackburn, he would strike him." Indeed, he said, it was his belief that Christian would either strike a blow the moment Blackburn told him that "he was the calumniator," or that he would "resent it in some other way" perhaps by sending Blackburn a formal challenge."

Humes then came down on Horner's side,, arguing that if Blackburn confronted Christian, especially "in the presence of others" he might "have a difficulty with him . . . ."

Worse, Humes noted, "if this happened among or in [the] presence of Christian's friends," Blackburn might well "need some assistance."

That said, Humes and Horner ten told Blackburn that "if he could wait" they "would go with him . . . ."

Blackburn took them up on their offer, and as soon as his two friends had finished dinner, the trio set off together " . . . with the expectation and purpose, " in Horner's words, " to put it to Christian . . . either to act the coward or the man of courage,"

Blackburn had walked to the Moore house that morning wearing only his tight-fitting navy-blue "furlough coat" uniform only VMI First Classmen were allowed to wear off campus. Apparently the weather had turned colder and the boys stopped by room 13, to pick up Blackburn's long, gray overcoat, modeled on those worn by West Point Cadets. Buttoning only the cape to keep it place, he and his friends then set off across the parade ground toward Lexington in search of Charles Burks Christian.

The trio's first stop in was McDowell's Hotel, where Christian was a boarder. A "servant," no doubt a slave, sent up to fetch him. Christian, he soon reported, was "out."

At Horner's suggestion the Cadets next checked Moore's Hotel, a popular hang out, just up the street. Christian wasn't there either.

After two false starts Blackburn and his friends were now not only frustrated, but openly expressing their hope that when they finally found him, Christian would take offense at Blackburn's "revelation."

Horner later admitted their only real "fear" at that point was that Christian would be too "obtuse" to understand that he had been insulted and would avoid a fight.

Thus fully prepared for a tussle, the three Cadets returned to McDowell's hotel, with Blackburn, according to Horner, walking with his hand stuck in the breast of his overcoat, in the style of the Emperor Napoleon, "as was his habit."

Christian, they discovered, had been at McDowell's Hotel the entire time.

To be continued