Tag Archives: Tennessee

7 March 1862: “A great many bodies have been taken up and still the woods are thick with groups of graves with rudely carved boards for tombstones to show where their last remains repose.”

Item description: Letter, 7 March 1862, from Robert Stuart Finley to his fiancee, Mary A. Cabeen. Finley was a member of the 30th Illinois Infantry, a Union regiment engaged in the siege and taking of Fort Donelson on the 13th, … Continue reading

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27 February 1862: “Latest from the North.”

Item description: News briefs of 27 February 1862 from various Northern newspapers, as reprinted on 5 March 1862 in the State Journal (Raleigh, N.C.). Item citation: Weekly State Journal, 5 March 1862. Raleigh, N.C.: John Spelman. C071 S79j. North Carolina … Continue reading

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16 February 1862: Events crowd rapidly upon us and every moment seems full of history—The enemy are pressing us at every point and the crisis is also hard. Fort Henry on the Tennessee River has fallen and the enemy steamed down to Florence in Alabama destroying the shipping as they went

Item description: Diary entry, 16 February 1862 , of David Schenck (1835-1902).  Entry discusses military events in Tennessee and plans for intervention by England and France. Item citation: From folder 4 (volume 3) of the David Schenck Papers #652, Southern … Continue reading

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14 February 1862: It seems that on Monday the enemy got possession of Elizabeth City. Henningsen was there & retreated – When last heard from he was at Newby’s Bridge & probably escaped to Suffolk or some point on the Rail Road to Norfolk.

Item description: Entry, 14 February 1862, from the diary of Thomas Bragg (Attorney General of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1863), written in Richmond, Va. Bragg comments on the capture of Elizabeth City, military affairs, diplomacy, and the burden felt … Continue reading

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7 January 1862: “The world is inclined to be against us on the negro question, and this is operating most unfavorably for our struggle for independence.”

Item description: Letter, 7 January 1862, from Jeremy Francis Gilmer, an engineer with the Confederate Army, to his wife, Louisa Fredericka Alexander Gilmer. Gilmer wrote of how he missed “Loulie” and their children, of New Years day and its dissimilarity … Continue reading

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1 November 1861: “The minions of Lincoln are pressing onward…May they be thwarted.”

Item Description: Rev. Overton Bernard calls upon God for vengeance against the Union after a Confederate defeat. Item Citation: From folder 2 of the Overton and Jesse Bernard Diaries #62-z,  Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Item … Continue reading

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11 August 1861: “With some pains and a few good whippings he would make a valuable servant.”

Item description: Letter from John Kimberly, Chapel Hill, N.C., to his wife Bettie, in Nashville, Tenn.  Kimberly reports on household matters, such as the note, “I am having shelves made for my old wardrobe to use for a cupboard.” He … Continue reading

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28 July 1861: “My heart exults over the victory at Manassas.”

Item description: Letter from John Kimberly, Chapel Hill, N.C., to his wife Bettie in Nashville, Tenn. John Kimberly was a professor of chemistry and agriculture at the University of North Carolina, 1857-1864 and 1875-1876. It is unclear why Bettie Kimberly … Continue reading

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12 May 1861: “I am going with him…I will be as safe as at home and far better satisfied…”

Item description: Letter, 12 May 1861, from Annie Maney of Nashville, Tenn., to her sister Bettie Kimberly in Chapel Hill, N.C., regarding the possible postponement of Maney’s wedding to John Schon, due to Schon’s impending enlistment in the Confederate Army. … Continue reading

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