Monthly Archives: March 2012

31 March 1862: “[Copperheads] are the most contemptable devils, of all others what ever shape they may assume.”

Item description: Letter, written by Abraham H. Botkin, a lieutenant in the 79th Ohio Infantry of the U.S. Army, to Mr. and Mrs. Bushey, possibly his brother-in-law and sister. Botkin wrote from Gallatin, Tenn., where action was at a standstill, … Continue reading

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30 March 1862: “My unwavering confidence has only been in the final result, not in the intermediate steps which will lead to it. We may have yet enough of the same sort to endure to bring us to the verge of the precipice…”

Item description: Letter from Walter Waightstill Lenoir, written to one of his brothers. Item citation: In the Lenoir Family Papers #426, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Item transcription: Five miles East of Kinston, … Continue reading

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29 March 1862: “we are now on the sea of a decisive contest, and all hearts are anxious about the result…”

Item description: Diary entry written by Jane Evans Elliot. More about Jane Evans Elliot: Jane Evans Elliot (1820-1882) was a diarist in Fayetteville, N.C. Her husband was Alexander Elliot, a lumberman who served in the North Carolina House of Commons, … Continue reading

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28 March 1862: “To day is a gloomy one in the calendar. Jackson’s reverse has cast down the whole community.”

Item Description: Letter to James Johnston Pettigrew, from sister M. B Pettigrew, Hillsborough, N.C., March 28, [1862?].  In her letter, she describes the mood and reactions of people after the “reverses” of Stonewall Jackson, reports on the aftereffects on several … Continue reading

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27 March 1862: Having discharged my duties in the company with fidelity I then thought I might be promoted. But now I see there is no possibility of such a result. The whole thing is already arranged.

Item Description:  Letter of 27 March 1862, from R.T. Hubard to his Uncle E.W. Hubard . A darkly good humored letter concerning the election of company officers and the politics of advancement.  This discussion is interrupted by the arrival of … Continue reading

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26 March 1862: “Florida is hard pressed by the enemy both Fernandina and Jacksonville have been taken by the Lincolnites.”

Item Description: Rev. Overton Bernard discusses his son’s, Jesse Bernard, raising of volunteer troops in Florida. He sheds light on political maneuvering involved in securing military ranks.  Bernard’s entry also illuminates the impact of the war on Florida cities. Image:    Item Citation: From … Continue reading

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25 March 1862: “the Generall in Command (Gen Branch) gave orders when he retreated to burn the City & set fires in severall places but the people who did not leave got out the engines & put out the fires.”

Item description: This is the third in a series of four letters, which were written in 1862 by William B. Alexander to his wife Mary F. Alexander.  In this letter, Alexander writes describing his the wound he received during the Battle … Continue reading

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24 March 1862: “$25 REWARD WILL BE PAID FOR the apprehension or delivery of a mulatto boy belonging to my mother.”

Item description: 24 March 1862 advertisement placed by Raleigh druggist Peter F. Pescud on behalf of his mother, Susan Brooke Pescud, offering a $25 reward for a runaway slave, printed in the 1 April 1862 issue of the Register (Raleigh, … Continue reading

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23 March 1862: Hand drawn map of the First Battle of Kernstown

Item description: Hand drawn map, dated 23 March 1862, of the First Battle of Kernstown, reportedly sketched by two officers on Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s staff: Major Jedediah (Jed) Hotchkiss and Major R.L. Dabney. The battle is considered the opening … Continue reading

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22 March 1862: “…the most extraordinary & unaccountable panic took possession of some white men…”

Item description: In this letter, 22 March 1862, Jane Caroline North Pettigrew wrote to her mother, Jane Petigru North, about her husband’s plans to remove their slaves from Magnolia and Bonarva plantations to Chatham County in central North Carolina, in … Continue reading

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