Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

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 Raphael Jacob Moses Autobiography, #529-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy available.

Partially published in Jacob R. Marcus, Memoirs of American Jews , v. 1.

Acquisitions Information

1938

Additional Descriptive Resources

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

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.

• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Biography.
• Georgia--Biography.
• Georgia--Politics and government.
• Georgia--Social life and customs.
• Hill, Benjamin H. (Benjamin Harvey), 1823-1882.
• Jews--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.
• Longstreet, James, 1821-1904.
• Moses, Raphael Jacob, 1812-1893.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Georgia.
• Stephens, Alexander Hamilton, 1812-1883.
• Toombs, Robert Augustus, 1810-1885.

• Albert Moses Luria Books (#428), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Raphael Jacob Moses (1812-1893) was the chief commissary officer for General Robert Toombs, General James Longstreet, and the state of Georgia, during the Confederacy.

The collection is a typescript copy of the autobiography of Raphael J. Moses, written in 1892 at the request of his children. Reminiscences focus on his early education, family life, business failures and successes, courtship and marriage to Miss Eliza Moses (about 1834), legal and political careers before and after the Civil War, and his role as chief commissary for Toombs, Longstreet, and finally, the state of Georgia. Accounts of personal experiences include his analyses of legal and business conditions in St. Joseph, Fla., 1840s, Columbus, Ga., 1849 through Reconstruction, and Atlanta, Ga., 1870s. There are also numerous anecdotes and character sketches of important Confederate officials, including Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Robert Toombs, Alexander Stephens, Benjamin Hill, and short paragraphs on Jeb Stuart, John Hood, George Pickett, and W. H. T. Walker. In addition are scattered references to his pride in being Jewish and a letter, 29 August 1878, to Honorable W. O. Tuggle of Lagrange, Ga., commenting on the use of "Jew" as a derogatory epithet.