Monthly Archives: December 2012

31 December 1862: “The Yankees getting decidedly the worst of it, our division was not engaged, it is stationed on the Lebanon Pike near the center of the lines…”

Item description: Letter, 31 December 1862, from Thomas W. Patton, lieutenant in Company C of the 60th Regiment North Carolina Troops, to his mother, Henrietta Kerr Patton. Item citation: From the James W. Patton Papers #1739, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North … Continue reading

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30 December 1862: “Let me know whether I can get ten bunches (bales we call them) of cotton…”

Item Description:  Letter, 30 December 1862, from John R. Wilson to J.&J. H. Webb.  James Webb (20 February 1774-17 February 1855), physician of Hillsborough, Orange County, N.C., a founder of the North Carolina State Medical Society, Presbyterian educational leader and … Continue reading

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29 December 1862: ” it has been deemed expedient to endeavor to bring about a convention of all the Iron Masters of the South…”

Item description: Circular published by J.R. Anderson & Co., dated 29 December 1862, calling on Southern industrialists to mobilize the region’s iron mills and blast furnaces. [Transcription available below image. Image and transcription courtesy of DocSouth.] Item citation: From the Duff Green … Continue reading

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28 December 1862: “It is said that on Friday last eleven men were shot in and around this place for desertion.”

Item description: Letter, 28 December 1862, from Thomas W. Patton, lieutenant in Company C of the 60th Regiment North Carolina Troops, to his aunt, Charlotte Kerr, Asheville, N.C.   Item citation: From the James W. Patton Papers #1739, Southern Historical Collection, … Continue reading

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27 December 1862: “It looks to me as if the persons named intended that they should be captured by the rebels.”

Item description: “Report of Commander Murray, U. S. Navy, regarding the reported capture of parties transporting goods from Norfolk [Virginia] to Elizabeth City [North Carolina].” To read more from the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the … Continue reading

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26 December 1862: “he was sitting in the door playing the fiddle and aunt Dilsy was dancing fit to kill herself! It was sunday evening at that.”

Item description: Letter, 26 December 1862, from  Mary (Mame) Faucette (1842-1896) to her Aunt Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Garrett Lenoir (1844-1880). [Transcription available below images] Item citation: From the Lenoir Family Papers, #426, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina … Continue reading

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25 December 1862: “The boys are in excellent spirits however not much doing in the eggnog line…”

Item description: Letter, dated 25 December 1862, from Isaac Adams Howard of Gonzalez, Tex., to his father, Dr. William Henry Howard. In this letter, Howard, of the 5th Texas Regiment, Company B, gave a graphic description of the Fredericksburg battlefield … Continue reading

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24 December 1862: “This is Christmas eve! Oh what a different mode of spending it this is from what I have been in the habbit of doing!”

Item description: Letter, 24 December 1862, from Union soldier Stephen Tippet Andrews to his beloved, Margaret (Maggie) Little. Stephen Tippet Andrews enlisted in the 85th New York Infantry Regiment on 26 August 1861. He helped organize Company F, and was mustered … Continue reading

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23 December 1862: “My darling wife”

Item description: Photograph, taken 23 December 1862, of Martha “Mattie” Ready, the daughter of Colonel Charles Ready Jr., a former U.S. Congressman. Just ten days earlier Mattie Ready married John Hunt Morgan, a colonel with the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry until his promotion … Continue reading

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22 December 1862: “Mr. H. was absent from the final examination without permission. His general deportment has been good.”

Item description: Report card, dated 22 December 1862, for John Steele Henderson, a student at the University of North Carolina. More about John Steele Henderson: John Steele Henderson (1846-1916) was born in North Carolina, the son of Archibald and Mary Henderson. … Continue reading

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