Creator: Devereux, John G., fl. 1856-1890.
Collection number: 2149
View finding aid.
Abstract: Hardware merchant and banker of New Orleans and Confederate veteran. Military and business papers of John G. Devereux, and correspondence and financial and legal papers of Stephen and J. C. Van Winkle. An account book and other volumes from Wexford and Dublin, Ireland, appear to belong to John Devereux’s father, John Devereux (fl. 1822), merchant and shipper. J. G. Devereux’s Civil War records relate chiefly to the Siege of Vicksburg and consist of military correspondence, including letters from Ulysses S. Grant; muster rolls; items relating to Confederate prisoners; a list of slaves used as laborers; and other items. Business papers relate chiefly to Devereux’s banking career. Stephen Van Wickle was sheriff of Pointe Coupee Parish, La., ca. 1819-1835. He was also business and legal agent for Valerien Ledoux (d. 1853), a Pointe Coupee sugar planter. In 1835 J. C. Van Wickle, a sugar planter and possibly Stephen’s son, took over the position of sheriff as well as the management of the Ledoux estate. Financial and legal materials of the Van Wickles comprise sheriff’s plantation, personal, and merchant accounts, and include account books, deeds, warrants, judgements and court orders. An 1842 bill of sale for slaves and a list of slaves are included. Miscellaneous items of interest are a transcription of a speech by Louisiana governor Henry W. Allen, 1863; a ledger of a cotton press and cotton press association, presumably in Pointe Coupee parish, 1880-1883; and a biographical sketch of Confederate chief of engineers Martin Luther Smith.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: The collection includes a letter (1829) authorizing the hiring out of slaves, slave treatment, and the inappropriateness of a woman’s handling the hiring out of slaves. Financial and legal papers include a slave bill of sale (1842). A volume of sheriff’s accounts includes a clipping concerning the legality of a free black manumitting a slave and her three children (1827) and another volume lists slaves purchased and amount paid. Among the Civil War records is a list of slaves conscripted to work on the fortification of Fort Pemberton, Mississippi, and a provision return form for slaves transporting ammunition and guns from Greenwood to Wenona, Mississippi (1863). Microfilm available.