to Point Lookout, where he was released upon taking the oath of allegiance as the war ended. One account has him being transferred in a prisoner exchange in early 1865, but being recaptured less than a month later. Career After the war, Riddleberger again became a clerk in Woodstock, as well as taught school and began a newspaper, the Tenth Legion Banner. By 1870, intrigued by reading a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries while imprisoned at Camp Chase, Riddleberger began reading law under the guidance of former Confederate officer Henry C. Allen, the son of judge John J. Allen and whose grandfather had been a judge in Woodstock (and whose relative may have volunteered in Hardy County for cavalry service under Riddleberger). Riddleberger moved to Woodstock, the Shenandoah County seat, and began editing the Shenandoah Herald. Admitted to the Virginia bar, Riddleberger opened his legal practice in Woodstock. Virginia politician and newspaperman After reapportionment following the 1870 census, and re-enfranchisement of many Confederates, Riddleberger ran for one of what had become Shenandoah County's two seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. He won election and re-election as a Conservative, serving first alongside James W. Smoot, then John W. R. Monroe. Until 1875, Riddleberger was on the Conservative Party's state committee, but he was a Democratic presidential elector in 1876. In 1876, Riddleberger won election as the Commonwealth attorney (local prosecutor) for Shenandoah County, and won re-election once, serving until 1883. Although Riddleberger failed in his first attempt to win election to the state Senate in 1875, in 1879, he was elected to the state Senate representing Shenandoah and Page counties and served one term (until 1882). During this period Riddleberger also edited and published newspapers at Woodstock, first the Shenandoah Democrat and after 1880 the Virginian. Beginning in 1884, Riddleberger and his wife would own and publish the Shenandoah Herald. In the late 1870s, Riddleberger joined former Confederate general and railroad builder William Mahone (supported by the Richmond Whig newspaper) in forming a coalition of blacks, Republicans, and populist Democrats which became known as the Readjuster Party. The Readjusters dominated Virginia's politics for about 10 years, until a group of "Conservative" Democrats led by John S. Barbour, Jr. (who would succeed Riddleberger) took power in the late 1880s. Riddleberger was one of the Readjuster party's presidential electors in 1880, but pledged to vote for the Democratic candidate. Riddleberger's main legislative accomplishment