Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#M-4072
ELIZA C. KILLIAN PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Personal correspondence, 1856-1886, including
letters from relatives in York District, S.C.,
Tennessee, and Maine, concerning family and community
matters, and from friends in the Confederate Army
serving in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee,
particularly with the 23rd and 32nd North Carolina
Regiments, including an 1864 letter questioning the
justification of slavery.
Online Catalog Terms:
Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Regiment,
23rd.
Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Regiment,
32nd.
Family--Southern States--Social life and customs--19th
century.
Killian, Eliza C.
Maine--Social life and customs--19th century.
North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
North Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.
Slavery--Justification.
Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
Tennessee--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
Tennessee--Social life and customs--19th century.
Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
York District (S.C.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
Size: 251 items (1 reel of microfilm).
Provenance: Lent for filming by Mrs. J. Blair Waugh of Galax,
Va., in November 1975.
Access: RESTRICTED: Publication requires permission of donor.
Related Collections: S. H. Steelman Papers (#4074) for
correspondence of Eliza Killian and John
W. Lloyd and their daughter, Anna.
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:
Description
DESCRIPTION
Eliza C. Killian, daughter of Andrew (1800-1861) and Elizabeth
Killian, lived at Killian's Mill, Lincoln County, N.C. These
papers consist of personal letters written to Eliza by her
sister, Julia Ann, referred to as Ann, and brother-in-law, J. E.
Quinn of York District, S.C.; her brother, John A. Killian in
California and in the Confederate Army in Virginia; friends in
Spartanburg, S.C., Columbia, Tenn., and Brunswick, Me.; and
friends in Confederate service in Virginia and Tennessee. There
are also scattered letters written by Eliza to relatives and
friends.
Letters between Eliza and Julia Ann, 1860-1861, discuss
Eliza's visits, local news and mutual friends, Ann's desire to
see her sister, and her problems of child-raising and household
and farm management. After Julia Ann's death in 1862, letters
from her husband, J. E. Quinn, to Eliza and her family continue
reports on home and farm life and include military news and
rumors.
Letters to Eliza from her brother John begin 31 March 1856
when he described his life in Angels Camp, Calaveras County, Cal.
After enlisting in the Confederate army in 1861, he served with
the 23rd North Carolina Regiment at Orange Court House and
Taylorsville Station, Va., and wrote occasionally to his sister
and family about his military experiences and mutual friends in
the army. Of particular interest is a letter, 5 March 1864, in
which John despaired of Confederate success, questioned the
rightness of slavery, and condemned the social inequalities
caused by slavery.
There are numerous love letters to Eliza from suitors both
before and during the war from suitors such as Pinckney A.
Ramseur of Spartanburg, S.C., 1858-1859, and W. D. Carpenter of
Columbia, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga., 1859-1860. Both of these
suitors mention daily activities and local events as well as
their affection for Eliza.
In 1859, Eliza began correspondence with Manuel Ebenezer
Shell, a student at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., and her
former teacher. His letters describe his trip to Maine, his life
as a student, and, later, his military service with the 32nd
North Carolina Regiment in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Camp Fisher and
Suffolk, Va. Her letters to Shell comment on local religious and
social activities, her educational deficiencies, and her regard
for Shell. Both discuss their feelings about the war and the
South's enemies. Shell died in July 1862.
During the war, Eliza received letters not only from her
brother and M. E. Shell, but from other men in Confederate
service. Like those of Shell and her brother, these letters
describe camp life, military movements, promotions and changes in
command, feelings about the war and the enemy, and personal news.
Many also include expressions of affection and concern for Eliza.
Correspondents include: Leroy D. Quinn of South Carolina, who
wrote in 1861 from military camps in Sullivan's Island, S.C., and
Richmond, Manassas, Charlottesville, Germantown, Fairfax Court
House, and Centerville, Va., and who died of typhoid pneumonia in
November of that year; John A. Thompson, who served with her
brother John in the 23rd North Carolina Regiment from Orange
Court House and Taylorsville Station, Va., from 1863 to 1864 when
he disappeared in battle; and J. S. Cross, who served with the
6th Arkansas at Chickamauga, Tenn., in 1863 and 1864 (two letters
only).
Eliza received her first letter, January 1864, from John W.
Lloyd of Friendship, S.C., a merchant whose travels took him to
Manning and Columbia, S.C. His letters include news of his daily
life, mutual friends, and rumors about the war; her letters to
him deal primarily with her feelings about the war, concern for
him, and daily life at home. There are also letters to Eliza
from Lloyd's sister Mollie, a milliner in Friendship, including
reports on Lloyd's serious illness (typhoid?) in late 1864 and
early 1865.
Eliza married John W. Lloyd on 13 July 1865 in Lincoln County,
N.C., where they apparently settled. there are two brief notes
in 1880 and 1886 between them while he traveled on business, and
an 1866 letter to him from Y. N. Butler of Manning, S.C., about
the prospects for liquor and tobacco sales in Manning.
Among the undated materials are a letter from Kate to Eliza
describing a girls' school commencement and current fashions and
a poem "To Miss Eliza" by Leroy D. Quinn.
Also included are letters to Mrs. J. Blair Waugh of Galax,
Va., owner of the manuscripts, from archivists in North Carolina,
South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and Bowdoin College, Maine,
which supply additional information about the letter writers and
events mentioned in the letters. Interfiled with the manuscripts
are typed copies of many letters made by Mrs. Waugh.