Tag Archives: Alabama

15 January 1865: “Nothing could induce me to pass my life in the midst of such strife”

Item Description: A letter from Pauline Semmes to her husband, S. S. Semmes describing some life in Mobile, Alabama.     Item Citation: From Folder 1, in the S. S. Semmes Letter, #2089-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina … Continue reading

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3 January 1865: “I went to the dairy to get a bucket with a little milk in it, a yankee came running half bent asking “what you got” I turned it bottom upwards and kept on”

Item Description: A letter from Alabama describing what the Union Army took during their occupation, as well as some of the conditions of the confederate people and animals.   Item Citation: From Folder 271, in the Pettigrew Family Papers #592, Southern Historical … Continue reading

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14 November 1864: “we are saddled up to meet the Yanks.”

Item Description: A letter from the cousin of Margaret E. Blackwell describing his experience in the Confederate Army in Alabama. He explains several small skirmishes between his men and the Union army, a wagon stampede, and what he gets up to … Continue reading

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12 May 1864: “The news is not very reliable but indicates that a great & bloody battle is being fought and that Grant is giving the rebels a bitter lesson.”

Item description: Letter, 12 May 1864, from Robert Finley to his fiancee, Mary A. Cabeen. Finley was a member of the 30th Illinois Infantry, serving in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. Item citation: From the Robert Stuart Finley papers #3685-z, Southern Historical Collection, … Continue reading

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5 November 1863: “I never was so tired of soldiers!”

Item Description: Letter, 5 November 1863 Anne Gordon Finley at Cherokee County, Ala., describes the Confederates under General William Martin foraging and stealing all the food and supplies of the countryside, camping around and in her home, pulling up crops, and … Continue reading

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22 September 1863: “If they are unsuccessful, we must nerve ourselves to face many new trials.”

ITEM DESCRIPTION: editorial, The Daily Journal (Wilmington, N. C.), 22 September 1863, page 2, column 1.  NB. The editorial describes the Battle of Chickamauga, fought 19-20 September 1863. TRANSCRIPTION: THE DAILY JOURNAL. CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. WILMINGTON, N. C., TUESDAY, SEPT’R. … Continue reading

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5 August 1863: “Isaac, Henry and John were left behind to take their chances. Sarah and Diana ran away, and I suppose are with the Yankees…”

Item Description: Letter, dated 5 August 1863, from William H. Thomson to his son Ruffin Thomson. More about Ruffin Thomson: Thomson was the oldest child and only son of William H. Thomson and Hannah Lavinia Thomson. He studied at the University … Continue reading

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31 January 1863: “in St. Clair County south of this they are resisting the conscript law & two loyal men have been killed by the conscripts…”

Item description: A letter, 31 January 1863, from John Tate and Sarah Ann Gordon Finley, Rocky Point, Alabama, to Dr. Robert Franklin and Carolina Gordon Hackett. Item citation: From the Gordon and Hackett Family Papers #1040, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson … Continue reading

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21 October 1861: “there is not one man in 50 in this section who has money enough to pay his current expenses to say nothing of taxes.”

Item description: Letter, 21 October 1861, from James H. Nichols, Lowndes County, Alabama, to William Porcher Miles, Representative for the Charleston, S.C., district in the Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Ala. The letter details concerns among the “planter class” about the … Continue reading

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4 August 1861: “…we may date our trouble from the time when we allowed Party to place in the chair a President, entirely disregarding his worth, ability, or capacity for it…”

Item description: Letter from Elodie Todd (1844-1881) to her fiance Nathaniel Henry Rhodes Dawson (1829-1895). Elodie Todd, of Selma, Ala., was the sister of Mary Todd Lincoln (the wife of Abraham Lincoln). At the time of this letter, Nathaniel Henry … Continue reading

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