Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the William Beavans Diary and Letters #3244-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed 2007) available.

• Reel 1: Entire collection

Alternate Form of Material

Typed transcriptions of volumes 1 and 2 are available.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. Stanley Whitaker of Enfield, N.C., in November 1957.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Beavans, William, d. 1864.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 1st.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 43rd.
• Courtship--Confederate States of America.
• Diaries.
• Halifax County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Love-letters--Confederate States of America.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Diaries.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives, Confederate.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

William Beavans, a Confederate soldier from Halifax County, N.C., served with the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Company I, in 1861, and with the 43rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Company D, from 1862 to 1864. He was wounded at Snicker's Gap, Va., on 18 July 1864. Beavans died of his wounds at Winchester, Va., on 31 July 1864.

The collection consists of William Beavans's diary, January 1861-July 1864, which includes intermittent entries written at home in Halifax County, N.C., and during the Civil War while campaigning in Virginia with the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment in 1861, and with the 43rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 1862-1864. The diary documents weather, reading, drilling, troop movements, and other matters, and includes drafts of love letters and poems; remarks about the women Beavans courted; and memoranda regarding ordnance, mess accounts, and finances. Also included are a letter to Maggie Beavans, Beavans's sister, commenting on the conscript law, measles, and military life, and two letters of Maggie and her friend Fannie regarding friends, relatives, and sweethearts killed in the war.