Eugene Blackford was a Virginian by birth, born in Lynchburg, and was the youngest of five brothers, all of whom rose to positions of rank and responsibility in the Confederate military. Miraculously, they would all survive the Civil War. He moved to Alabama before the conflict, beginning his Southern military service on May 15, 1861, as a captain in Company K of the 5th Alabama Infantry, just 10 days after the regiment was organized at Montgomery.

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