Civil War Resources at Wilson Special Collections Library: Soldiers & Camp Life

U.S. Army officer; Louisiana planter; Confederate Army officer; civil engineer in Alabama and Texas following Civil War.

Military letters and telegrams from Bragg while he was serving with the U.S. Army in Missouri, 1852-1855, and as a Confederate general, 1862-1864, and a letter from him to his wife, 1853.

Confederate officer, aide to Robert E. Lee, and professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia.

Official communications, mainly dated 1863-1864, addressed to R. E. Lee, and to Venable and other staff officers, from Confederate commanders in the Virginia theatre of war. Scattered postwar letters to Venable from former Confederate officers contain discussions of military actions and include letters from Venable to his wife and his son, Francis Preston Venable. Other correspondents include R. H. Anderson, P. G. T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, Jefferson Davis, Jubal A. Early, Richard S. Ewell, Wade Hampton, A. P. Hill, J. D. Imboden, Bradley T. Johnson, Fitzhugh Lee, W. H. F. Lee, F. T. Nicholls, George E. Pickett, Jeb Stuart, and T. M. Talcott. Volumes include lecture notes and a printed copy of Venable's 1874 "Address before the Society of the Alumni of Hampden-Sydney College."

Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889), soldier and educator, was born in York District, S.C. A United States army officer by way of West Point, he participated in all the major battles of the Mexican War. Hill resigned from the military in 1849 to begin an academic career in mathematics that would last until the outbreak of the Civil War. He joined the Confederate Army and saw action in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, while rising in rank from colonel to lieutenant general. After the war, Hill published a periodical and weekly paper and resumed a career in academia.

Civil War and postwar correspondence of General D. H. Hill with high Confederate military and civil officers, with some letters from Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1890), Virginia theologian and Confederate chaplain. There are also notes by Charles W. Dabney, who assembled the items, circa 1929-1931. Persons represented include Rufus Barringer, P. G. T. Beauregard, John C. Calhoun, Robert Hall Chilton, Robert Lewis Dabney, Jubal A. Early, William A. Graham, Wade Hampton III, Stonewall Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, Washington Caruthers Kerr, Drury Lacy, James Henry Lane, Alexander Robert Lawton, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Alexander Peter Stewart, Robert Augustus Toombs, Joseph Wheeler, and William Henry Chase Whiting. Also included is a Hill family genealogy and a few other items. Some items are originals and others are copies (as noted in the finding aid).

Edward Porter Alexander was an engineer, United States and Confederate army officer, university professor, businessman, and planter.

Civil War papers include diaries and notebooks, voluminous postwar correspondence with other officers concerning a proposed history of Longstreet's corps and preparation of Alexander's memoirs (published 1907), drafts of the manuscript and other writings, speeches, and collected histories of various army units. Other papers include letters from the Adam Leopold Alexander family of Savannah and Washington, Ga.; papers of the Alexander H. Mason family of Hagerstown, Md.; scattered business letters; E.P. Alexander's letters from Nicaragua, 1896-1899, while he served as arbitrator in the Costa Rica-Nicaragua boundary dispute; diary of a trip to Panama and Nicaragua in 1900; papers concerning South Island property, Georgetown County, S.C.; memoirs of early life; miscellaneous writings; and photographs of Alexander at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., "Mrs. Morris," a Confederate spy, various family members, and views of unidentified buildings and houses.

U.S. and Confederate Army officer, president of the University of Nashville, and professor of mathematics at the University of the South.

Correspondence and other papers, chiefly 1840-1866, of Edmund Kirby-Smith, dealing with his personal affairs, education, military career, and later life as president of the University of Nashville and professor at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. Includes notes on the Kentucky campaigns of 1862; letters of the Revolutionary War period written by his grandfather, Ephraim Kirby (1757-1804) and some by Joseph Smith written to his brother, Elnathan Smith; diary and miscellaneous notes, 1849-1868; official letter book, 1863-1865; a notebook, 1865, giving an account of Kirby-Smith's flight to Cuba and Mexico; and a scrapbook of Civil War clippings.

William Hedge was a lieutenant in the 44th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment operating during the Civil War in eastern North Carolina during 1862-1863.

The collection consists of six hand-drawn sketches made by William Hedge depicting Civil War scenes in the vicinities of Washington and Williamston, N.C. One of the items is a color sketch illustrating details of daily camp life, while another is a small map of the Little Creek battle fought near Williamston, N.C., on November 1862. Another color sketch, dated April 1863, provides a view of Fort Hamilton in Washington, N.C., including a log blockhouse, gun emplacements, and surrounding geographic details. There are also three small pencil sketches possibly depicting members of the infantry regiment.

Chiefly Civil War letters from Federal soldiers throughout the South, in camps, hospitals, and prisons, to family and friends in the North. This collection is made up of unrelated single items or small groups of items, some of which are cataloged separately.

Stephen Tippet Andrews served with the 85th New York Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He helped organize Company F and was mustered in as first sergeant of the company in the second half of 1861. Andrews was captured with the Plymouth Pilgrims on 20 April 1864 and was held captive at an unknown location for roughly one year. On 8 April 1865, he was honorably discharged. After the Civil War, he married Margaret Little and worked in a general store. He was appointed postmaster by President Benjamin Harrison and served in this capacity until his death on 13 June 1891.

The collection contains letters from Stephen Tippet Andrews to Margaret Little (Maggie) written over the course of Tippet's service in the 85th New York Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. Also included is a volume containing transcriptions of the letters and biographical information on Andrews and Little, written by their great-granddaughter Sally Andrews Earnest. Most letters are dated 1862-1863 and roughly half were sent from North Carolina where he was stationed, 1863-1864. There is a gap from 14 April 1864 to 28 March 1865 when Andrews was captured and held prisoner. Letters describe military life and provide news of battles won and lost, including the capture of Fort Donaldson in 1862; a battle on 31 May 1862 near Virginia; a series of encounters at Blackwater River near Suffolk, Va., in November 1862; the battle taking Kinston, N.C., in December 1862; and the Confederate attack on New Bern, N.C., in March 1863. The letters occasionally describe the southern homefront. They also discuss Andrews's feelings for Little and his hopes for their marriage and life together.

Papers of an Essex County, N.J., family, including eighty-five Civil War letters written home by E. W. Price, serving with the 5th New York Regiment in Maryland and West Virginia. Price's letters concern the discomforts of camp life; his activities as a nurse, cook, and prison guard; the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg; and his reactions to national news, especially the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Also included are antebellum papers, including records of Price's father, Jeremiah Price, constable of Essex County, N.J., relating to delinquent tax collections; letters from a brother in Michigan; and letters from E. W. Price and a brief account book Price kept while he was apprenticed to a bookbinder in Waterbury, Conn.

Harrison Wells of Zebulon, Ga., was a commissary sergeant with Company A, 13th Georgia Infantry Regiment, who served primarily in Virginia and Maryland.

The collection is chiefly letters from Harrison Wells to his then fiancee May (called Mollie) Long, written from various military camps and battlefields while serving as a Confederate commissary sergeant during the Civil War. Letters frequently contain detailed discussions of military engagements and major battles including the Confederate capture of Harpers Ferry; the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam); the Battle of Chancellorsville; the Battle of Fredericksburg; the Second Battle of Winchester; the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House; the Confederate invasion and retreat from Washington, D.C.; and the Second Battle of Kernstown. Letters often mention troop movements and discuss the nature of the fighting and its aftermath, some with enumeration of casualties. Letters occasionally relate personal reflections, sentiments, and assurances of affections; descriptions of camp life and troop morale; opinions of specific military leaders, particularly Stonewall Jackson and Braxton Bragg; predictions for the war; and depictions of scenery and public reception in towns through which the troops passed. There are also two responses from May Long at Corona College in Corinth, Miss., chiefly discussing her schooling and leisure activities, but with some discussion of the impact of the war on the local area; Civil War era letters from members of Wells's family and from relatives of May Long including one describing actions in defense of the North Carolina coast; a few antebellum and post-war family letters including an 1857 letter from Eliab Horace Wells describing George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, Va., and the construction of the capitol at Washington, D.C.; a map drawn by Harrison Wells of the Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg, Va., area annotated with troop positions; an ambrotype of Harrison Wells and a daguerreotype of May Long; and other items.

Herbert Eugene Valentine (1841-1917) was a private in Company F of the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteers, who served in the United States Army between 1861 and 1864 in eastern Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

The collection includes a diary, pencil and watercolor sketches, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and maps, all contained in two manuscript volumes of Herbert E. Valentine. Valentine's diary discusses the subjects of many of his sketches. It also comments on church services, blacks he encountered, daily life among officers and enlisted men, Confederate deserters, life in Norfolk, Va., the career of General Charles Adam Heckman, and other matters. There are 184 sketches picturing towns, buildings, ships, bridges, fortifications, and everyday life at military bases. Locations with numerous sketches include Beaufort, Morehead City, and New Bern, N.C., and Hilton Head and Saint Helena Island, S.C. Seven color maps pertain to the operations of the 23rd Massachusetts Regiment in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. Correspondence consists of four letters relating to Valentine's military activities in 1861.