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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 4.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2200 items) |
| Abstract | Berry Benson (1843-1923) of Hamburg, S.C., was a Confederate army soldier in the 1st South Carolina Regiment. After the war he lived at Augusta, Ga., where he was a teacher, cotton trader, author, and inventor of a remunerative bookkeeping technique. The collection contains correspondence, writings, notes, Civil War diary and reminiscences, and other papers of Benson relating to his early life, family history, and Civil War career. Writings include fiction; poetry; plays; humor; and commentary related to the Civil War, including Benson's experiences at the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness; his escape from Elmira Prison; manners and mores; and other subjects. Other papers relate to Benson's expertise in handwriting, codes, ciphers, mycology, and other matters. Also included are full diaries from 1880 and 1884 regarding his his travels in Mexico, Cuba, and Texas. |
| Creator | Benson, Berry, 1843-1923. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
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.
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Biographical
Information
Berry Benson (1843-1923) of Hamburg, S.C., was a Confederate army soldier and author. During the Civil War, Benson was in the 1st South Carolina Regiment, taking part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness, and escaped from the federal prison at Elmira, N.Y., by digging a tunnel. After the war he lived at Augusta, Ga., where he was a teacher, cotton trader, author, and inventor of a remunerative bookkeeping technique. Benson's Civil War experiences were published in Berry Benson's Civil War Book: Memoirs of a Conferate Scout and Sharpshooter, edited by Susan Williams Benson (1962). The book primarily comprises Benson's diary, memoirs, letters, and the diary of his brother.
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Scope and Content
The collection contains correspondence, writings, notes, Civil War diary and reminiscences, and other papers of Berry Benson (1843-1923) relating to his early life, family history, and Civil War career. Writings include fiction; poetry; plays; humor; and commentary related to the Civil War, including Benson's experiences at the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness; his escape from Elmira Prison; manners and mores; and other subjects. Other papers relate to Benson's expertise in handwriting, codes, ciphers, mycology, and other matters. Also included are full diaries from 1880 and 1884 regarding his his travels in Mexico, Cuba, and Texas.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence, 1845-1922 and undated.
Arrangement: Chronological.
Correspondence of Berry Benson. Topics include his experiences during the Civil War, his escape from Elmira Prison, travels, correspondence with publishing houses regarding his writings, codes and cryptograms, civic matters, and the adoption of war orphans in Europe.
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Series 2. Writings, 1880-1912 and undated.
Writings of Berry Benson, chiefly on the Civil War, includes manuscripts, stories, remininscences, notes, clippings, diaries, and his memoir.
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Items Separated
Processed by: SHC Staff
Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007
Updated by: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton, and Jodi Berkowitz, November 2010
This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.
Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.
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