Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#3583
JAMES S. MILLING PAPERS
Inventory
Full text of selected personal correspondence, 1861-1864
Abstract: James S. Milling, physician and planter in
Fairfield District, S.C. In 1859, Milling moved his
slaves to a plantation in Bossier Parish, La., where
he spent much of his time while his wife (and cousin)
Mary W. Milling and their children remained with her
family near Camden, S.C. In 1866, Mary and the
children moved to Louisiana.
Chiefly letters to James Milling from relatives
and friends, including his father, David, in Fairfield
District, S.C.; his brothers Thomas H. and William A.
in South Carolina; his brothers David and John R. in
Anderson County, Tex.; his wife near Camden, S.C.;
schoolmates from the Medical College of South
Carolina, including an 1855 letter referring to sexual
exploits of students; and friends settling frontier
areas of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. Many of
these letters were written in colloquial English and,
therefore, contain examples of unconventional grammar
and spelling. Chief topics include student life at
several South Carolina schools; plantation life and
slave relations; travels in the Southwest frontier;
the South Carolina home front during the Civil War;
life in a military camp near Manassas, Va., in 1861;
the war in Mississippi and Louisiana; the formation of
Oklahoma; and postwar adjustment. There are few
letters after 1866.
Online Catalog Terms:
Anderson County (Tex.)--History--19th century.
Arkansas--History--19th century.
Bossier Parish (La.)--History--19th century.
Bull Run, 1st Battle of, Va., 1861.
Camden (S.C.)--History--19th century.
Colloquial language.
Fairfield District (S.C.)--History--19th century.
Frontier and pioneer life--Texas.
Frontier and pioneer life--Mississippi.
Louisiana--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
Medical College of South Carolina.
Milling, James S., fl. 1854-1883.
Milling, Mary W., fl. 1857-1866.
Mississippi--History--19th century.
Oklahoma--History--19th Century.
Plantations--South Carolina.
Reconstruction--South Carolina.
Reconstruction--Texas.
Slavery--South Carolina.
South Carolina--Agriculture. [local heading]
South Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
South Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.
Southern States--Description and travel--1848-1860.
Students--South Carolina--History--19th century.
Students--Sexual behavior.
Texas--History--19th century.
Size: About 150 items (0.5 linear ft.)
Provenance: Purchased from Munroe D'Antinac, dealer of
Griffin, Georgia, in June 1962.
Access: No restrictions.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
or their descendants, as stipulated by United
States copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Description
INTRODUCTION
Biographical Note
James S. Milling was the son of David Milling, a planter near
Jackson's Creek in the Fairfield District of South Carolina.
Although James attended medical school at the Medical College of
South Carolina in Charleston, he seems to have been chiefly
preoccupied with farming. After leaving Charleston in 1854, he
returned to the Fairfield District and married his cousin Mary of
Bairds Hill near Camden in 1857. He spent several years scouting
land in the West, assisted by his brothers John and David, who
moved to Anderson County, Texas. James Milling finally moved his
slaves to Bossier Parish, Louisiana, in 1859, where he spent most
of the Civil War. In 1866, James moved his wife and children,
who lived at Bairds Hill during the war, to Louisiana. For more
detailed biographical information see the following description.
Collection Overview
This collection consists chiefly of letters to James S.
Milling from friends and relatives. The bulk of the letters date
from 1852 to 1866. Interfiled with original letters, often
written in colloquial English with unconventional grammar and
spelling, are many typed transcriptions. These transcriptions
should serve only as aids to quick scanning since they tend to be
neither accurate nor complete.
DESCRIPTION
Chief topics in the earliest letters in the collection include
education and the search for land in frontier areas of the
Southwest. James received several letters in 1854, during his
final days at the Medical College of South Carolina in
Charleston, referring to anxieties he had expressed about passing
exams. Upon finishing his school work, he returned to practice
medicine and farm at Jackson's Creek in the Fairfield District of
South Carolina. There he received letters from former
classmates, such as Camden Atkinson, who wrote in 1855 about the
rigors of exams and his sexual exploits. James's brothers also
wrote from school in South Carolina: John at Arsenal Academy in
Columbia, and Thomas at Greenwood in the Abbeville District.
Also of note is an 1852 letter from relatives in Tennessee to
whom the Millings occasionally refered in letters throughout the
collection.
By 1855, letters show that James and his brothers were looking
for land in the West. A travelling acquaintance wrote James in
June describing the terrain and agricultural potential of Texas,
and declaring that such land would not "suit large cotton
planters, but tis a poor man's paradise." Several letters from
R. G. and Basil A. Hallum offer details of political and social
activities in Anderson County, Texas, where James's brothers
David and John eventually settled.
James married his cousin Mary in 1857 and they had two
daughters, Minnie and Jane, before James moved to Bossier Parish,
Louisiana, in 1859. In December 1860, Mary wrote her husband
news of their newborn son John. James in Louisiana was separated
from his family in South Carolina for four years during the Civil
War. Many letters from Mary and from James's father and brothers
document the effects of war on the home front in South Carolina.
Topics include the report of a speech given by James Chesnut in
Camden during the secession crisis, rumors from Charleston, food
prices, and slave relations. An exception to the emphasis on the
domestic experience of the war is a letter from William (3
September 1861), who was camped near Manassas, Virginia, and
complained about a measles epidemic among the soldiers there.
There is also some documentation of the western theater of the
war in letters from Mississippi and Louisiana.
In 1866, James was reunited with his family in South Carolina
and soon moved them to Louisiana. There are only a few letters
after 1866, chiefly from Texas and South Carolina family members,
who describe readjustments in the aftermath of slavery and
attempts at financial recovery, including James's purchase of
land in Arkansas. Of special interest among the scattered
letters from 1870 to 1883 are an 1873 letter from Thomas Milling
in Richmond, Arkansas, discussing the formation of Oklahoma from
Indian territory, and an 1883 letter from John Milling conducting
business in Shreveport, Louisiana for his father, James.
Folder 1 1852-1854
2 1855
3 1856-1857
4 1858-1859
5 1860
6 1861
7 1862
8 1863
9 1864-1865
10 1866
11 1867-1869
12 1870-1883 and undated