Confederatevets.com

After several weeks illness, Capt. John N. Ballard, one of the oldest and most beloved citizens of Fairfax County, Va., died at his home near Legato on October 13, 1922. Comrades of Marr Camp of Confederate Veterans, of which Captain Ballard was an active member and officer, attended his funeral, and sons of Confederate veterans were the pallbearers. He was laid to rest in the Fairfax Cemetery.

Captain Ballard went from Albemarle County to Fairfax County some forty-five years ago, and for over thirty-two years he was commissioner of the revenue.

When war came on in 1861, and before Virginia had seceded, he went South and enlisted in a South Carolina regiment. Later he was elected lieutenant in a Virginia command, and on the organization of Mosby's command, became one of it's members. He lost a leg while serving under Mosby, but refused to retire, and remained with his company throughout the war. He was a gallant soldier, and his comrades in war say of him that he knew not fear.

Captain Ballard and Miss Lillie Thrift were married in Fairfax County in September, 1874. Her father was the late Maj. James Thrift, of the 8th Virginia Infantry, who was killed in the battle of Seven Pines, near Richmond, May 21, 1862. She survives him with one son and three daughters.