Sanders Meredith Ingram Papers, 1830-1930

Creator: Ingram, Sanders Meredith, 1819-1905.
Collection number: 5491
View finding aid.

Abstract: Sanders Meredith Ingram was a farmer, lawyer, and state legislator from Richmond County, N.C. He was also a part of the inaugural class at Wake Forest College, 1834-1835. Ingram served in the Mexican War in the lst Tennessee Calvary Regiment and in the Civil War as first lieutenant in the 38th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. He left the army in 1862 to serve as Richmond County representative in the North Carolina state legislature. Ingram’s first wife was Jane Mourning Shepherd, with whom he had five children; his second wife was Sarah Francis Moore Hogan, with whom he had at least three children. Ingram died in 1905 and was buried in Montgomery County, N.C. The collection includes letters, writings, printed materials, financial and legal materials, images, and other items of Sanders Meredith Ingram. Early letters relate to Ingram’s farm in Richmond County, N.C.; fundraising at Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, N.C.; and the Mexican War. A February 1846 letter discusses the severity of a typhoid fever outbreak and high casualties among the slave population. Civil War-era letters include some from family members and friends, Ingram’s October 1862 resignation letter, and several from Confederate soldiers requesting transfers out of the military and into government service. Post-war, there is a February 1871 letter from John McLeod to Thomas Garrett in which McLeod criticized the work ethic of the African Americans he encountered. Writings include speeches by Ingram relating to the Mexican War and the Civil War and several of his Civil War-themed poems. Other materials include official correspondence from the Pension Office and the State of North Carolina, an 1861 document appointing Ingram as first lieutenant in the 38th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, contracts, receipts, clippings, and other items. Two receipts, one in 1849 and the other in 1853, document Ingram’s contracting for slave labor. Also included is Volume 1, Issue 1, of the Tampico Sentinel, 1 February 1846, an English-language newspaper published during the American occupation of Tampico, Mexico, during the Mexican War. There are also tintypes, ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes. One tintype is identified as John William Cameron; the others are unidentified and undated.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Folder 1 contains a February 1846 letter discussing the severity of an outbreak of typhoid fever and high casualties among the enslaved population.

Folder 3 contains a February 1871 letter from John McLeod, who criticized the work ethic of the African Americans he encountered.

Folder 8 contains two receipts for the arrangement of slave labor. The first, dated 29 December 1849, concerns the transfer of a “certain Negro Girl Mary” from J.N. Ingram to Sanders Meredith Ingram. The second is dated 29 December 1853 and documents Ingram’s purchase of “two certain negroes by the name of Newberry and Daniel” from Alred Baldwin for $19.25 for one year. The receipt includes clothing, shoes, and a blanket for each slave.