State of Tennessee Department of State Tennessee State Library and Archives 403 Seventh Avenue North Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0312 CIVIL WAR COLLECTION CONFEDERATE AND FEDERAL Processed by: Jean B. Waggener Archives & Manuscripts Unit Technical Services Section Date Completed: March 1, 1966 Location: IV-B-1,2,3,4,5 Microfilm Accession Number: 824 Microfilm Container List #824 Reel 1: Box 1, Folder 1 to Box 3, Folder 12 Reel 2: Box 3, Folder 13 to Box 6, Folder 10 Reel 3: Box 6, Folder 11 to Box 9, Folder 17 Reel 4: Box 9, Folder 18 to Box 12, Folder 4 Reel 5: Box 12, Folder 5 to Box 14, Folder 11 Reel 6: Box 14, Folder 11a to Box 15, Folder 15 Reel 7: Box 16, Folder a to Box 19, Folder 4 Reel 8: Box 19, Folder 5 to Box 21 Reel 9: Volumes 1-6 Wrapped Separately to Notebooks Reel 10: Notebook to Notebook 14 Reel 11: Notebook 15 to Notebook 23 Reel 12: Notebook 24 to Notebook 31 Reel 13: Notebook 32 to Notebook 37 Reel 14: Notebook 38 to Notebook 51 Reel 15: Miscellaneous to Box F23, Folder 13a Reel 16: Box F23, Folder 13b to Box F 24, Folder 5 Reel 17: Box 24, Folder 6 to Box C26, Folder 1 Reel 18 Box C26, Folder 2 to Box C27, Folder 7 Reel 19: Box C27, Folder 8 to Box C30, Folder 5 Reel 20: Box C30, Folder 6 to Box C31, Folder 12. INTRODUCTION This collection was compiled from various sources. Single photocopies of unpublished materials may be made for purposes of scholarly research. The collection occupies 10.92 linear feet of shelf space, and number approximately 4,500 items. SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE The Civil War Collection contains approximately 150 volumes and 4, 060 items are Confederate material, and approximately 10 volumes and 450 items are Federal material. Included are autograph albums, casualty lists, cemetery records, clippings, diaries, letters, maps, memoirs, orders, photographs, records (medical, supply, etc.), scrapbooks, sketches, and material relating to military personnel and units, monuments, prisons, and veterans’ organizations. Miscellaneous items include a casualty list and muster roll of Forrest’s command, Civil War veterans’ questionnaire data, Confederate money, field notes, a hospital register from Memphis, Tennessee, Rev. Charles Todd Quintard’s Manual of Devotions, a roster of quartermasters in the Army of Tennessee, and two theses. There are also fifty-one volumes of material concerning the Civil War Centennial of 1961-1965. These were placed in the Manuscript Division by the Tennessee Civil War Centennial Commission, Campbell H. Brown, Executive Director. To the researcher of the Civil War period, this collection will be a valuable source of information on the following campaigns and battles: Atlanta, Belmont, Bentonville, Brice’s Cross Roads, Bull Run, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Corinth, Dalton, Fishing Creek, Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, Fort Pillow, Franklin, Gettysburg, Manassas, Missionary Ridge, Murfreesboro, Nashville, New Hope Church, Perryville, Port Hudson, Shiloh, Tennessee Campaign, Vicksburg, and the Virginia Campaign. Information concerning military units from Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, and Tennessee, is arranged by state, by branch of service, and then by unit, and includes histories, rolls, and other records which pertain to the unit as such. CONFEDERATE MATERIAL The nine autograph albums in the collection were kept by such notables as Gov. John Calvin Brown, Alfred Osborne Pope Nicholson, and others. They contain signatures, and in some cases, lengthy remarks concerning the War and other Confederate prisoners at Fort Warren and Johnson’s Island prisons. In many cases the men who signed the albums included their company and regiment, with the place and time of their capture. In John C. Brown’s album Nathaniel Francis Cheairs wrote at length of the courage, skill and gallantry displayed by Brown and by the regiment which he had commanded, the Third Regiment, Tennessee Volunteers. Of particular interest is his account of the fall of Fort Donelson. In signing his name in Brown’s album, Henry Myers, Paymaster, C .S. Navy, added that he had been arrested in Morocco and sent to Boston in irons. Included among the twenty-seven Confederate diaries is the printed on of Brig. Gen. Marcus J. Wright, April 23, 1861-February 26, 1863, in which he told of the march from Chattanooga into Kentucky and the subsequent retreat from Kentucky. George R. Elliott, a major in the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, described action in which he took part, and at times wrote in his diary while under the enemy’s fire. William E. Sloan gave an excellent account of his service with Co. D, 5th Tennessee Cavalry and with Wheeler’s command. Other valuable diaries in the Collection include those of Andrew Jackson Campbell of Maury County and Marcus Bearden Toney of Davidson County. Among the Confederate letters (approximately 1,200) are originals, xeroxed and typed copies, photostats, and facsimiles of letters of the following: Alfred Harris Abernathy, Judah P. Benjamin, U. T. Brown, Alex M. Clayton and others, Jefferson Davis, Sam Davis, Dr. David George Godwin, Landon C. Haynes, Gustavus A. Henry, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, Bushrod Rust Johnson, Matthew Fontaine Maury, John Hunt Morgan, Leonidas Polk, James E. Rains, Alfred J. Vaughan, John C. Vaughn, and Joseph Wheeler. Transcripts of the Godwin correspondence are included in the folder but were not microfilmed. There are five letters addressed to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. One letter, dated September 3, 1861, and signed by Alex M. Clayton and other prominent citizens, requested the appointment of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston to command the army of West Tennessee. A letter to Davis, dated March 8, 1862, signed by the two Senators from Tennessee, Gustavus A. Henry and Landon C. Haynes, and eight member of the Confederate Congress, asked for the removal of Johnston because the army had lost confidence in him. They also urged Davis to come to Tennessee for the sake of building morale. A third letter, dated November 17, 1863, written by Gustavus A. Henry from General Bragg’s headquarters urged the necessity of driving the enemy out of Tennessee. A letter dated November 10, 1864, written by W. G. Swann, a member of the Confederate Congress, requested assistance in obtaining the release of Hon. Heiskell. The last of this group of letters, dated January 19, 1865, and signed by A. S. Colyar and other members of the Confederate Congress, urged Davis to obtain the release of Hon. Heiskell before W. G. Brownlow became Governor of Tennessee. Other letters of interest include a group written by Mary Walker Meriwether Bell of Christian County, Kentucky. These letters are an excellent source of material about the people and conditions in Christian County and the surrounding area, including Clarksville (Montgomery County), Tennessee. Letters written by Sarah Ann Bailey Kennedy give a vivid picture of conditions in Clarksville during the War period. A letter from the citizens of Clarksville to Ulysses S. Grant protested the outrages committed by the Federal soldiers stationed there. A letter of J. Wes Broom, illustrated with colored pencil drawings, gave a lengthy, poetic description of the successful defense of Port Hudson against Federal naval attack. Among the forty-one Confederate memoirs, of particular note are those of William Gibbs Allen, R. W. Banks, Newton Cannon, Nathaniel Francis Cheairs, James L. Cooper, Henry Melvil Doak, J. W. Harmon, John Johnston, John M. Porter, and Isaac Nelson Rainey. Allen, of Rhea County, Tennessee, serving with the 5th Tennessee Cavalry, described cavalry engagements and gave eye-witness accounts of Gen. Joseph Wheeler, for whom Allen served as Adjutant. His memoirs, supplemented by his questionnaire data, contain much information concerning the part the 5th Tennessee Cavalry played in the War, the organization of the cavalry in East Tennessee, and Rhea County. Banks, who memoirs primarily concern the Battle of Franklin, is author of the book, The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, the Bloodiest Engagement of the War Between the States. J. W. Harmon of Lauderdale County, Alabama, served with the 35th Regiment, Alabama Infantry. Harmon gave detailed accounts of engagements in which he was involved, troop movements, and conditions on the march and at various camp sites. He told of conditions after his capture at the Battle of Nashville, of the trip to Camp Chase prison, and of conditions in the prison. John Johnston, of Denmark, Tennessee, served with the Tennessee Infantry, and after being discharged for medical reasons, later joined the Cavalry. His memoirs are detailed and quite interesting. They were published in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XIII (1954) and XIV (1955). Other manuscripts in the Confederate material which have been published include the memoirs of James Lytton Cooper, published in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XV, no. 2, (June, 1956); and the memoirs of Newton Cannon, of Williamson County, Tennessee, published as The Reminiscences of Newton Cannon, by the Carter House Association of Franklin, Tennessee, and printed by McCowat-Mercer Press, Inc., Jackson, Tennessee, in 1963. The majority of the material concerning Nathan Bedford Forrest was collected by Monroe F. Cockrell and given by him to the Manuscript Division. This collection includes a photostat of a Forrest letter, clippings, articles and speeches, booklets, and correspondence with Robert S. Henry on points of interest concerning Forrest. In addition to the Forrest material the Military Personnel section of the Confederate material contains data on William B. Bate, Jefferson Davis and Davis’ escort, Sam Davis, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, and others. The three scrapbooks contain clippings relating to various battles, the possibility of England’s alliance with the Confederacy, and other topics that were being discussed in the newspapers of the day. Records of the Fred Ault Camp, No.