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 Trusten Polk Papers, #1556-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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.

• Arkansas--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Canada--Description and travel.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Diaries.
• Cuba--Description and travel.
• Diaries.
• Mexico--Description and travel.
• Military courts--Confederate States of America.
• New York (N.Y.)--Description and travel.
• Polk, Trusten, 1811-1876.
• Snead, Thomas L. (Thomas Lowndes), 1828-1890.
• Texas--Description and travel.
• Travelers--North America--Diaries.
• Voyages and travels--History--19th century.

Trusten Polk was a lawyer of St. Louis, Mo.; governor of Missouri, 1857; United States senator from Missouri, 1857-1862; colonel, Confederate States of America; and a military judge, 1864-1865. Polk resigned as governor after being elected to the Senate, and he was expelled from the Senate in 1862 for his support of the Confederacy.

The collection contains Polk's diary, January-October 1865, recounting his service as a Confederate colonel and judge of military courts in Arkansas, and his postwar journey to Texas, Mexico, Cuba, Canada, and New York; a printed speech by Polk, 1861, when he was a United States senator from Missouri; a letter, 12 February 1889, from Thomas L. Snead to Mrs. Trusten Polk relating an incident from Polk's life during the war; and other items.