Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Confederate States of America Bureau of Conscription, 7th North Carolina Congressional District Records, #170, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. J. A. Gray of Guilford County, N.C., prior to 1940.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1aa.

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.

• Anson County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Chatham County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Recruiting, enlistment, etc.
• Confederate States of America. Bureau of Conscription.
• Davidson County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Desertion, Military--Confederate States of America.
• Montgomery County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Moore County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1861-1865.
• Randolph County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Stanly County (N.C.)--History--19th century.

The Confederate States of America Bureau of Conscription, 7th North Carolina Congressional District included Anson, Chatham, Davidson, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, and Stanly counties, and was responsible to the state conscript office at Raleigh, N.C. District offices were concerned with enrollment, exemptions, substitutes, work details, partially disabled soldiers on limited service, senior reserves, deserters and other absentees from active units, and manpower problems. The district enrolling officer was John M. Little, with headquarters at Wadesboro, N.C., until February 1864 when he was succeeded by D. C. Pearson who had headquarters at Lexington, N.C. The commandant of conscripts for North Carolina was Colonel Peter Mallett, who was succeeded in the Raleigh office in October 1864 by Lieutenant General T. H. Holmes. The state conscript officer was responsible to the Bureau of Conscription of the Confederate War Department at Richmond, Va., under John S. Preston.

The collection includes official records of the successive chief enrolling officers of the 7th North Carolina congressional district. Files include individual applications for exemptions and details, and supporting correspondence and petitions; correspondence about bureau policies and procedures; reports and lists from each county and from the district; general and special orders received from Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va.; and papers relating to deserters, manpower for essential industry, senior reserves, and details for men on limited service. In addition to the personnel of the conscript service and the individual applicants, the correspondents include employers in essential industry, employers with government contracts, heads of government departments using manpower, relatives and neighbors of hardship cases, commanders in the field, officers of the state courts and the executive branch of government.

Also in the collection is a series of papers of Claiborne Gray, who apparently served as an adjutant in the Confederate Conscript Sevice, 7th North Carolina District in 1865. The papers are personal and family letters addressed to Gray from relatives in North Carolina, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Indiana, and Tennessee. There is also genealogical material concerning Robert Gray who came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1748 and moved to North Carolina about 1767.

• Oversize papers (X-OPF-170/1)
• Oversize volume (SV-170/2)