Charlotte Family Donates Civil War Letters, Establishes Library Endowment

When Robert W. Parker joined the Second Virginia Cavalry in 1861, he wrote to his loved ones whenever he was able.

Some letters reflect the grueling life of the soldier-complaints about rations and camp routines, requests for clothing, horses, and ink.

Others capture the uncertainty of life in wartime:

"Dear Beck," he began in 1863 to his wife, Rebecca, "Though this note may never reach you there is nothing like trying to get one to you Of course, you have been in great suspense as to my being dead or alive."

Parker's letters now speak to modern readers from a new home in the Southern Historical Collection of the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Dooley family of Charlotte, N.C., Parker's direct descendents, recently donated the 350-item Robert W. Parker Papers to the library. The family also established the Parker-Dooley Fund for Southern History with a gift of $250,000 to the Southern Historical Collection.

"This is the final chapter and a new beginning in the journey of a family treasure that started with my great-grandfather's first letter," said David Dooley, executive vice president at Charlotte-based R.T. Dooley Construction Co.

The Parker Papers complement the strong Civil War collections already held at UNC's libraries, said Tim West, curator of Manuscripts and director of the Southern Historical Collection.

"We have hundreds of collections featuring letters from soldiers," commented West, "but it's rare to see a run of correspondence that covers the war in Virginia from the very beginning to the very end." Approximately 300 of the letters are from Parker to his wife, his parents, and other relatives.

West expects the collection to attract researchers interested in military life and in the way the war affected families. "You come to understand that these were real people living day-by-day in extremely trying circumstances," said West. "You get a sense of what the typical Confederate soldier felt and understood about what was happening."

The human dimension of the story is heightened, West said, by its end. Although Parker saw relatively little combat over the course of the war, he was killed in 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, the war's final battle before the surrender of Robert E. Lee.

The saga of the letters did not end with Parker's death. In 2004, the Dooley family sought the advice of historian Peter Carmichael at UNC-Greensboro. Carmichael, who has arranged to have the letters published next year as a book, put the family in touch with professionals who transcribed the correspondence and physically conserved each item.

When it came time to find a home for their treasured documents, the Dooleys turned to family friend Erskine Bowles, president of the UNC system and Bowles, in turn, connected the Dooleys with the Southern Historical Collection.

It is in part to honor this UNC-system trajectory that West formulated plans for the Parker-Dooley Fund. A key use of the endowment will be a competitive stipend to support graduate students and young faculty from UNC institutions other than Carolina who wish to conduct research in the Southern Historical Collection. West will also establish a Parker-Dooley Award to recognize excellent writing by Carolina students based on the collection's holdings.

"I could not be more excited about the impact the Parker-Dooley fund can have on the lives of faculty, students and visiting scholars," commented David Dooley. "As my family and I grow our business, we have come to realize the competitive advantage intellectual capital plays in our success. A strong university system plays into our strategy and raises the knowledge tides for all North Carolinians."

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