Tag Archives: North Carolina

3 March 1863: “Reach Chapel Hill, N. C., sick and tired but find family well.”

Item description: Entry, dated 3 March 1863, from the diary of Alexander Davis Betts, D.D. This very brief diary entry mentions Betts’ return to his home in Chapel Hill, N.C. The diary was later published as, Experience of a Confederate Chaplain, … Continue reading

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25 February 1863: “Troops have been pouring in in great numbers from North Carolina.”

Item Description: Letter, dated 25 February 1863, presumably to Jane North Pettigrew, from Henry Lesesne. Item Citation: From folder 261 in the Pettigrew Family Papers #592, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Item Transcription: … Continue reading

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24 February 1863: “Promenading and flirting wound up the affair about eleven o’clock.”

Item description: Portions of “Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass., Dep’t of No. Carolina,” an account, written by John Jasper Wyeth of Co. E, of the experiences of the 44th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. The book … Continue reading

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22 February 1863: “We had a pretty hard rain last night and, as some of our men were on open flat cars, fared pretty badly.”

Item description: Letter, 22 February 1863, from James A. Graham, officer in the “Orange Guard,” Company G, 27th Regiment N.C. Troops, to his father William A. Graham. Item citation: From the William A. Graham Papers #285, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North … Continue reading

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19 February 1863: “…you can, cooperating with General Foster’s land force, destroy the rebel ironclads building on the rivers…”

Item description: “Order of Acting Rear-Admiral Lee, U. S. Navy, to Commander Murray, U. S. Navy, to cooperate with land force for the destruction of Confederate ironclads under construction.” To read more from the Official Records of the Union and … Continue reading

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13 February 1863: “Attention! Conscripts! Recruits Wanted!”

Item description: This broadside, with a purported date written in pencil on the bottom left of the document, calls for recruits to the defend the “Old North State” and “drive back the vile invaders of our soil.”   Item Transcription: … Continue reading

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8 February 1863: “My chief hope & aim in coming here was to protect loyal men, and to encourage the people to return to their allegiance to the Union.”

Item description: Letter, 8 February 1863, to U. H. Wheeler of Washington, N.C., from Edward Stanly in New Bern, N.C. Stanly was a native of New Bern who had practiced law in Washington, N.C.; had been a Whig member of … Continue reading

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4 February 1863: “The right snug hostelry of Mary Lee, a free colored woman and an excellent cook, was the centre of attraction, being thronged with officers, naval and military, all day.”

Item description: Published letter, dated 4 February 1863, written by Corporal Zenas T. Haines, Company D, 44th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. The letter is an excerpt from Haines’ account, Letters from the Forty-Fourth Regiment M.V.M.: A Record of the Experience of a Nine … Continue reading

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3 February 1863, “I very much fear that famine will be among the trials that avail our people…”

Item Description: Letter, dated 3 February 1863, from Jane Gibert Pettigrew North (abbreviated JGN) to her brother, James L. Pettigrew.  She is writing from Badwell, a family plantation in South Carolina, to James while is is practicing law in Charleston.  … Continue reading

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1 February 1863: “I have had the itch – and feared to write lest it should be imparted to you from the paper…”

Item description: Letter, 1 February 1863, from Leonard Henderson to his mother Mary Henderson. The letter describes Henderson’s affliction with what many historians colloquially call “camp itch,” a mysterious skin disease that plagued countless soldiers during the war. Many now … Continue reading

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