Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 John Dudley Tatum Letters, #3279-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mabry Harper, May 1957.

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.

• Alabama--Social life and customs.
• Arkansas--Social life and customs.
• Brothers and sisters--Southern States--History--19th century.
• College students--Southern States--Social life and customs.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army. Alabama Infantry Regiment, 48th. Company E.
• Family--Georgia--Social life and customs.
• Mercer University--Students--History--19th century.
• Savannah (Ga.)--History--19th century.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• Tatum family.
• Tatum, John Dudley, 1839-1862.
• Teachers--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Tennessee--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--19th century.
• Women--Education--Georgia--History--19th century.
• Women--Southern States--Conduct of life.

John Dudley Tatum (1839-1862) was born near Milledgeville, Ga., to Herbert Dudley Tatum, a native of North Carolina, and Frances Kirby Greene Tatum, a native of Virginia. He was educated at Mercer College (now Mercer University), then at Penfield, Ga., and at the University of North Carolina, 1855-1858. He was for a time a teacher in Alabama and Arkansas and served in Company E, 48th Regiment of Alabama Volunteers, Confederate Army. Tatum was killed at the Battle of Murfreesboro.

The collection includes letters from John Dudley Tatum to his sister Anna Tatum in Milledgeville and Madison, Ga., while he was a student at Mercer College and at the University of North Carolina, 1855-1858, discussing school life and social activities; as a teacher in Alabama and Arkansas, 1859-1861, discussing social customs, the surrounding countryside, and Arkansas's secession; and while in the Confederate Army, 1861-1862, as a member of Company E, 48th Regiment of Alabama Volunteers, stationed near Savannah Ga., discussing camp life and preparations for the city's defense, and in Tennessee. In his letters, he expressed great interest in his sisters' education and included comments about their deportment and letter-writing.