Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#2206-z
FORREST FAMILY PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Papers of French Forrest (1796-1866) of Maryland,
U.S. naval officer during the Mexican War and later an
officer in the Confederate Navy, and of his son,
Douglas F. Forrest (1837-1902), Confederate naval
officer, lawyer in Baltimore, and Episcopal minister.
There are a few loose papers in the collection. The
bulk of the material is composed of account books from
Clermont, the home of French Forrest at Alexandria,
Va., and his order and letter books at Richmond and at
the Confederate navy yard at Norfolk, Va. Also
included are Douglas F. Forrest's diaries while
serving in the Confederate Navy and in the West
Indies, England, and France, 1863-1865, as an agent
for the Confederate government, and a short diary and
memoir, June 1865, of his start as an emigrant, via
Texas, to Mexico. There are also four volumes of a
diary he kept on a trip to Europe and the Holy Land,
1871, shortly after leaving the Virginia Theological
Seminary, where he received his training for the
Episcopal ministry.
Online Catalog Terms:
Accounting--Books of account.
American Confederate voluntary exiles--Mexico.
Americans--Europe--Diaries--History--19th century.
Clermont Plantation (Alexandria, Va.).
Confederate States of America--Foreign relations.
Confederate States of America--Officials and employees.
Confederate States of America. Navy--Officers--Correspondence.
Confederate States of America. Navy--Officers--Diaries.
Confederate States of America. Navy--Sea life.
Europe--Description and travel--1800-1918.
Forrest, Douglas French, 1837-1902.
Forrest family.
Forrest, French, 1796-1866.
Norfolk (Va.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
Palestine--Description and travel--19th century.
Texas--Description and travel--19th century.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Naval
operations.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal
narratives, Confederate.
Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
Size: 30 items (5 folders and 2 reels of microfilm).
Provenance: Lent for filming by Rutherford Fleet of Richmond,
Va., in January 1940.
Access: No restrictions.
Processing Note: This collection was processed with support
from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
or their descendants, as stipulated by United
States copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Biographical Note
Series Descriptions
Series 1. Diary Selections
Series 2. Microfilm
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Douglas Forrest was born in Baltimore on 17 August 1837, was
graduated from Yale in 1857, and attended law school, 1858-1860,
at the University of Virginia. He practiced law at Alexandria,
Va., 1860-1861, before joining the Army of Northern Virginia in
1861. During the war, he took three months sick furlough at
Norfolk in 1862, and was paymaster of the Naval Station at
Wilmington(?) in 1862 and at Richmond, 1862-1863. He spent the
later years of the war abroad. After the war, he practiced law
in Baltimore and became a minister of the Gospel in 1870. He
moved to Wytheville, Va., around 1875 and assumed the rectorship
of St. John's Parish.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Diary Selections
1865-1871. 5 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Typed copies of certain sections of the Forrest diaries which
are illegible on the microfilm.
Folder 1 Part 5: June 1865. Diary.
Folder 2 Volume 1: 20 January-27 February 1871. Diary of
trip to Europe.
Folder 3 Volume 2: 28 March-21 April, 1871. Diary of trip
to Europe.
Folder 4 Volume 3: 28 April-14 June 1871. Diary of trip
to Europe.
Folder 5 Volume 4: 12 June-1 August 1871. Diary of trip
to Europe.
Series 2. Microfilm
1847-1898. 2 reels.
The reels, originally in six pieces, have been spliced into
two large reels, the divisions marking the original 6 reels. The
material is not in perfect chronological order, so researchers
may wish to use the following detailed list. Reel 1 pertains
mainly to French Forrest, while the second reel contains papers
of Douglas Forrest.
M-2206/1 Part 1: 1847-1898, personal accounts and diary
entries of French Forrest, partly at Clermont, 1847;
"Expenses of moving from Clarksburg, W. Va., and the
Rectorship of its Christ Church, to Christ Church,
Coronada, Cal., for wh. I started Sept 20." 1897;
miscellaneous accounts, 1897-1898; tax receipt of
Capt. French Forrest, Washington Corporation, 1852;
miscellaneous accounts, 1859; Clermont miscellaneous
accounts, agricultural supplies, etc., 1856-1859;
miscellaneous personal expenditures in a different
handwriting, 1869; expenditures for "Son Douglas,"
1854; insurance on Clermont and other accounts, 1853;
and lists of stock in trust, some "for Richard," 1853.
Part 2: 1861-1862, three commissions, 1861, of French
Forrest as Captain in the Virginia Navy, 19 April,
Flag Officer in the Virginia Navy, 23 April, and
Captain in the Confederate Navy, June 11; letter, 18
February 1862, to Forrest from Frank Buchanan of the
Confederate States Office of Orders and Detail about
Forrest's son wanting to go to Virginia; letter, 24
March 1862, from S. R. Malloy removing Flag Officer
Forrest from Norfolk Navy Yard to take charge of the
Office of Orders and Detail at Richmond; Confederate
Document LXVIII (2), order book, April-October 1861,
of Confederate States Navy Yard, Gosport, Va., signed
chiefly by Forrest, Commandant, with miscellaneous
lists, accounts, etc.; Confederate Document (1),
office copy, October 1861-March 1862, of letterbook of
Forrest, Flag Officer and Commandant at the Dock Yard,
Gosport, Va.; Confederate Document LXVIII (3); and
order book, December 1861-January 1864, from
Commandant's office, Richmond, Va., of Forrest, Flag
Officer commanding H. R. Squadron and Station.
M-2206/2 Part 3: 1862-1864, list of checks in book, 28 October
1862-21 April 1863, with names, numbers, and amounts
of money marked Forrest on one page, Douglas F.
Forrest, Clermont, Alexandria on another; diary, 27
May 1863-April 1865, of Douglas F. Forrest,
Confederate Naval Officer, who ran running the
blockade at Charleston, S.C., was fired upon by Union
ships in the vicinity of the West Indies, landed on
Eleuthera, then traveled to Nassau, Cuba, England,
France, and other places in Europe, with mention of
prominent persons in the Confederacy; accounts, June
1863, of receipts for payments, apparently official
accounts of the paymaster; diary, November 1863-
February 1864, continued as above while Douglas
Forrest was on board ship at Calais; letter, 28 May
1862, of F. Forrest to his wife; diary, February 1864-
April 1864, continued of D. Forrest's with a poem,
"Francis Derrick's Farewell to the Rappahannock";
diary, April-October 1864, continued of D. Forrest's;
and a sketch of row buildings labeled "Seven buildings
near the little market, Pennsylvania Avenue" and
biographical information of Douglas Forrest.
Part 4: 1864-1875, diary, April-May 1865, of Douglas
F. Forrest in London, then Liverpool before boarding
the Tasmanian with Commodore Barron, Captains North,
Sinclair, Pegram, Barney, and other southerners,
arriving in Havana in April, traveling to Galveston
where they slipped by a Union fleet in May, and
staying in Texas; some accounts; notes on Forrest
after the war; personal accounts, 1873; diary of D.
Forrest, October 1864-December 1864, covering
Forrest's stay in Europe; and diary, February-April
1865, of Forrest.
Part 5: 1 June-13 June 1865, notes, either by French
Forrest but more likely Douglas F. Forrest, discussing
plans to go into Mexico with General Walker and
others, though the names of these others is not
clearly stated, and then deciding, after an illness in
San Antonio, to return to Virginia and describes his
journey through Texas, meeting former friends, Union
soldiers, and freed slaves, whose plight he relates in
detail.
Part 6: January-August 1871, four volumes of a trip
to Europe and the Holy Land by Douglas F. Forrest
giving numerous details of the journey and the places
visited.