Naval History and Heritage Command

University of North Carolina Libraries
CB#3926, Wilson Library
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Anderson, Edward C.
Papers, 1813-1882

U.S. Navy officer, Confederate Army officer, planter, politician, and businessman, of Savannah, Georgia. Family letters and assorted volumes of Anderson and his wife, Sarah McQueen (Williamson) Anderson of Savannah, Georgia.  Most of the letters, 1837-1882, are to Mrs. Anderson from female friends and relatives, and her husband. Topics include social life in various northern and southern cities, family news, and wartime conditions in Savannah and in Charleston, South Carolina Eight volumes of notes and diaries of Anderson record his varied experiences as a U.S. naval officer, 1835-1839 and 1842-1846, serving in the Mediterranean, in Florida coastal waters, and with the U.S. Coast Survey; as a Confederate Army officer traveling to England, 1861-1864, trying to purchase military supplies there, and serving later with the Savannah River defenses; and as a resident of Savannah, 1869-1875 and 1877- 1882, active as Mayor, insurance agent, and Director of the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad and the Central Railroad of Georgia.  Also reflected in the papers is his interest in family, social, economic, racial, and civic affairs during Reconstruction and later.  Also present are the minutes, 1813-1868, of the Chatham Academy of Savannah, and miscellaneous plantation and slave records.

63 items

Anderson, Edwin A.
Papers, 1878-1939

U.S. Navy Admiral from Wilmington, North Carolina, who retired in 1924.  Personal correspondence, chiefly 1883-1903, and official naval papers, 1878-1939, of Anderson.  Letters to his mother and to his wife, Mertie Lorain Anderson, discuss Navy life and describe foreign ports in four continents.  Official papers concern promotions, orders, recommendations, travel permits, and assignments, and include military writing and travelogues.  Also included are Anderson's social record and log as Commander Asiatic Fleet, 1922-1923.

800 items

Bagley Family
Papers, 1848-1939

Primarily letters about family, personal, and social life received by William Henry Bagley, clerk of the North Carolina Supreme Court, 1863-1887, and his wife Adelaide, daughter of Governor Jonathan Worth, including letters written by Adelaide to her future husband, 1864-1866, their children, and correspondence of other members of the Worth and Bagley families in North Carolina, concerning state politics and other matters.  Other correspondence includes letters from the Bagley children and their families, chiefly 1899-1939.  Represented are Worth Bagley, a U.S. naval cadet and ensign, who was the only officer of the U.S. Navy to be killed during the Spanish-American War; William Henry Bagley at Havana in 1899 and as a newspaper executive in Raleigh, North Carolina, 1900-1915; Adelaide Worth Bagley Daniels and her husband, Josephus Daniels, including letters from Washington, D.C., 1913-1920, while Daniels was Secretary of the Navy, and from Mexico, 1933-1939, while he was U.S. ambassador; and letters, 1931-1936, from George C. Worth, a Presbyterian missionary in China that contain descriptions of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

1,300 items

Balch, George B.
Papers, 1830-1924

Official orders, reports, correspondence, and other records of the naval service of George Balch of Alabama, who became a U.S. Navy officer in 1837 and retired as a rear admiral in 1883.  The collection includes a log of USS Cyane in the Mediterranean, 1838-1840; a few papers pertaining to service in Latin American waters and the Perry expedition to Japan in the 1850s; order and letter books of USSPawnee, 1862- 1865, commanded by Balch in South Carolina coastal operations, and other Civil War papers; scattered postwar papers related to various duties and to personal affairs at Baltimore; clippings about and a few brief writings by Balch; and a manuscript novel about the Naval Academy.

90 items

Barney, Joseph N.
Papers, 1839-1852

Personal diary kept by Joseph Barney, including ship's log entries while he was in Singapore and the East Indies, 1839, on board the U.S. frigate Columbia, and diary and log entries while he was sailing up and down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and South America, 1849-1852, on USS Vincennes, with frequent and sometime lengthy stays in port. Diary entries describe in detail his impressions in 1850 of Rio de Janeiro, Guayaquil, Ecuador, various California ports, and other locations, and note social and other daily events and Barney's reflections on self and surroundings.

1 volume

Bartlett, Steven C.
Papers, 1865-1908

Chiefly letters, January-August 1865, from Bartlett of Connecticut, a surgeon with the U.S. Navy, written from New York harbor and on his ship blockading Wilmington, North Carolina, to his family, concerning personal and family matters, military activity, his medical work, and conditions in Wilmington after the surrender.  Also included is a letter, 15 May 1908, from Stephen Russell Bartlett to his mother Julia Bilden Pickett Bartlett, advising her on preparing her claim for a pension as a widow of a Civil War veteran and a draft or copy of the declaration supporting her claim.

28 items

Bassett, John Y.
Papers, 1822-1871

Letters relating to medical, financial, and family matters of Dr. John Young Bassett, physician of Huntsville, Alabama, and family correspondence of his wife, Isaphoene (Thompson) Bassett.  The correspondence includes letters from editors Theodore Parker and William Gilmore Simms, 1849-1850, criticizing Bassett's article on race ethnology. After her husband's death in 1852, there are letters to Mrs. Bassett from her children, including sons Watkins and Henry William.  Watkins wrote from Waco, Texas, where he was living with his uncle.  Henry joined the Confederate Army and wrote from camps in Mississippi until his death at Shiloh.

153 items

Bell, Charles H.
Papers, 1813-1823

Brief intermittent entries by Bell of New York, later Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy, of places visited while a midshipman on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812 and under Stephen Decatur in the Mediterranean; and notes on other voyages along the Atlantic coast of the U.S., and in the Baltic and the Mediterranean.  A description of Lord Byron, May 1822, is included.  Microfilm. Original in private hands in 1962.

1 volume

Blacknall, George
Papers, 1831-1845

Daily records of patients and treatment given by a U.S. Navy surgeon George Blacknall at sea and in various ports, May-September 1845.  Blacknall's ship is not identified.

1 item

Blue, Victor
Papers, 1884-1919

Orders, reports, correspondence, and other records of Victor Blue of South Carolina, who served in the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Far East as a U.S. Navy officer, 1887-1919, retiring as a Rear Admiral.  The collection includes reports and reminiscences of an expedition he made behind enemy lines into the interior of Cuba during the Spanish-American War; orders during the Boxer Rebellion; and a manuscript article about Magdalena Bay, Baja California.

340 items

Bond, Richmond P.
Papers, 1943-1949

Chiefly photocopies of 17th- and 18th-century British newspapers, journals, and other printed materials used by Bond, an English professor at the University of North Carolina, in his research on American and British printing history.  Also included are papers relating to Bond's service as a U.S. Naval Reserve aviation officer on active duty with the Pacific Fleet during World War II, including military papers and personal correspondence; and materials used by Bond as he prepared his book, Queen Anne's American Kings (1952), about Mohawk Indians in London.

750 items

Brooke, John M.
Papers, 1859-1898

John Mercer Brooke was a U.S. and Confederate naval officer, scientist, inventor, and professor at Virginia Military Institute. Letters, 1861-1863, from Brooke to his wife; letters, 1896 and 1898, from Barton H. Wise to Brooke; Brooke's diary, 1859-1860, at Yokohama, Japan; and his nautical log and personal diary, February-March 1860, kept while he sailed to California on the Japanese ship Kanrin Maru, which was on a diplomatic mission to the United States.  Letters from Brooke to his wife, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Seldon Garnett Brooke, concern his daughter's illness and other family matters; letters from Barton H. Wise ask whether Brooke consulted Commodore James Barron's Model of an Ironclad when Brooke helped Mallory develop CSS Virginia.  The diary Brooke kept in Yokohama reports his work and social activities, and describes Yokohama and the Japanese people with whom Brooke had contact. The diary Brooke kept on board the Japanese ship records position and winds, events on shipboard, physical descriptions of Japanese officers, necessary Japanese phrases, observations on discipline and organization of the Japanese crew, and comments on the ship's history and equipment.

12 items

Buchanan, Franklin
Papers, 1829-1863

Diary, 1829-1831, of Buchanan while a U.S. Navy officer on a Mediterranean tour of duty on board USS Constellation, and, 1833-1834, on another Mediterranean tour, partly on board USS Delawareand partly on board the frigate United States; and letter book, 1862-1863, with handwritten transcriptions of outgoing letters, orders, and reports, of Buchanan while Confederate admiral at Norfolk, Virginia, and at Mobile, Alabama

2 volumes

Chapman, William G.
Papers, 1913-1914

Correspondence between Chapman, President of the International Press Bureau of Chicago, and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, chiefly concerning Chapman's proposal that the Navy finance a book and article he believed would aid recruiting, and one letter regarding this proposal from Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  There are carbon copies of the nine letters from Chapman to Daniels and four letters in reply from Daniels.

14 items

Chew, Francis T.
Papers, 1841-1881

Diary, 1863-1865, written while Chew was in Bermuda, Nova Scotia, England, and France on a secret mission, and sailing around the world on the raider Shenandoah; autobiography, written in 1881, covering the period of the diary as well as Chew's growing up in Arkansas and Missouri, his education at Annapolis, 1859-1861, and Confederate service, 1861-1862; a picture of Shenandoah; and a map of its voyage.

5 items 

Civil War Papers, Federal
Collection, 1860-1867

Miscellaneous papers relating to U.S. forces during the Civil War, including U.S. naval correspondence, 1863-1865; muster and pay rolls, 1864; U.S. Bureau of Information manuscript, 1863, listing the organization of the Army of Northern Virginia; manuscript outline of General George Stoneman's last cavalry raid, 1865, written in 1867 by a participant; an account of the siege of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, by a member of the 48th New York Infantry Regiment, which operated siege guns on Jones and Daufuskie Island, South Carolina; a Union soldier's description of treatment in "rebel jails," 1865; and miscellaneous pictures, autographs, biographical sketches, and clippings.

50 items

Cocke, Harrison H.
Papers, 1762-1876

Chiefly personal correspondence of Harrison H. Cocke and his wife and daughters, largely about family and social life in Virginia and Alabama.  There are also papers relating to Cocke's interest in agricultural experimentation.  Financial and legal papers of Cocke and other Cocke and Ruffin family members are represented by deeds, indentures, and receipts.  Also included are papers relating to Harrison Cocke's naval career, 1812-1861, including his activities in the late 1840s when he commanded USS St. Louis in the suppression of the illegal slave trade.  Included in this material is a handwritten copy of the Pensacola Naval Yard regulations.

200 items

Cotton, Lyman A.
Papers, 1886-1947

Official and personal correspondence, account books, scrapbooks, diaries, lectures, and technical articles of L. A. Cotten, relating to his 32 years of naval service, beginning with his education at Annapolis (1894-1898), and including his participation in the Spanish-American War, Philippine insurrection, Boxer Rebellion, Naval War College, Japan, China, World War I, and conflicts in the Near East.

7,500 items

Daniels, Richard P.
Papers, 1855-1858

Surgeon in the U.S. Navy, Confederate Army, and in Jacksonville, Florida. Detailed medical journal of the three-year cruise of USS San Jacinto, steam sloop-of-war, written during the voyage by Dr. R. P. Daniel, Assistant Surgeon.

1 volume 

Ferebee, Gregory and McPherson Family
Papers, 1822-1913

Family correspondence, business papers, and genealogical information of the Ferebee, Gregory, Howard, and McPherson families of southside Virginia and Granville County, North Carolina.  The early papers are those of Francis Roger Gregory of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, who studied medicine in Philadelphia, practiced medicine in Mecklenburg County in the 1830s, moved to Granville County, North Carolina, in 1840, and served with the 12th North Carolina Regiment at Sewells Point, Virginia, during the Civil War.  Mingled with the Gregory papers is correspondence of the McPherson family of Camden County, North Carolina, including letters to Elizabeth McPherson Proctor during her school days in Brunswick County, Virginia, and at Georgetown, D.C.  Postwar papers include those of George Howard of Tarboro, North Carolina, especially concerning the collection of pre-war debts owed by Northern creditors.  From 1872 through 1892, there are scattered papers of Nelson McPherson Ferebee (1849-1917) of the U.S. Navy and of his wife, Martha Gregory Ferebee, including letters written from Hong Kong and Uruguay while Ferebee was ship's surgeon on board USS Indiana, and copies of bulletins and log abstracts for several ships in the Caribbean during the War of 1898.  Miscellaneous items include scattered Civil War letters from women describing life on the Confederate homefront; an account of a student rebellion, 1886, at the University of North Carolina; letters relating to theater in eastern U.S. cities; letters relating to antebellum sexual mores; and genealogical information.

184 items

Florida, CSS
Records, 1862-1863

Log book of CSS Florida, a Confederate steamer stationed near Mobile, Alabama, from February to July 1862, kept by Thomas Longworth Moore of North Carolina, one of the ship's officers. The volume records weather, supplies, and important incidents.  Also included are extensive notes on seamanship and lists of the ship's officers in 1862 and January 1863.  This ship, also known as Selma, is not to be confused with the more famous Confederate cruiser Florida.

1 volume

Foote, Percy W.
Papers, 1905-1936

Correspondence, writings, photographs, and other items of Percy Wright Foote, career naval officer.  Among other duties, Foote served as Aide to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels (1918-1921), commander of USS Arkansas (1931-1933), and senior inspector of shipyards in four states during World War II.  He is best known for his heroic command of USS President Lincoln, which was torpedoed in 1918.

600 items

Forrest Family
Papers, 1847-1897

Papers of French Forrest (1796-1866) of Maryland, U.S. naval officer during the Mexican War and later an officer in the Confederate Navy, and of his son, Douglas F. Forrest (1837-1902), Confederate naval officer, lawyer in Baltimore, and Episcopal minister.  There are a few loose papers in the collection.  The bulk of the material is composed of account books from Clermont, the home of French Forrest at Alexandria, Virginia, and his order and letter books at Richmond and at the Confederate navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia.  Also included are Douglas F. Forrest's diaries while serving in the Confederate Navy and in the West Indies, England, and France, 1863-1865, as an agent for the Confederate government, and a short diary and memoir, June 1865, of his start as an emigrant, via Texas, to Mexico.  There are also four volumes of a diary he kept on a trip to Europe and the Holy Land, 1871, shortly after leaving the Virginia Theological Seminary, where he received his training for the Episcopal ministry.

30 items

Gautier, Thomas N.
Papers, 1789-1926

Chiefly correspondence, 1884-1907, of the descendants of Thomas Nicholas Gautier and his wife, Eliza Ann Brown Gautier, concerning members of the Gautier and Galloway families of North Carolina and England. Earlier papers consist primarily of family records; and a letter book containing handwritten copies of letters that Gautier wrote as commander of the naval forces at Wilmington, North Carolina, 1808-1813.

100 items

Gift, George W.
Papers, 1862-1870

Chiefly correspondence between Ellen Shackelford Gift and George Washington Gift, written before and after their marriage, with a few letters from other members of the Shackelford and Gift families and from friends, including Catesby ap Roger Jones, Gift's captain on CSS Chattahoochee.  Most of the letters were written by George to Ellen while he was serving on the Confederate Navy shipsChattahoochee, based at Chattahoochee, Florida; Gaines, based at Mobile, Alabama; and Tallahassee, based at Wilmington, North Carolina. All of these letters concern daily life on these ships.  After the war, Gift wrote many letters from Memphis, Tennessee, as well as a few from New York, Hong Kong, and other places where he was involved in a variety of business ventures.  These letters chiefly concern daily life, family news, and routine events, though there are extensive descriptions of Hong Kong.  Letters from Ellen to George chiefly concern family life.

200 items

Graham, William A.
Papers, 1750-1927

Hillsborough, North Carolina, lawyer, legislator, U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy, Whig vice-presidential candidate in 1852, Confederate senator, trustee of the Peabody Fund, and member of the Board of Arbitration for the Maryland and Virginia boundary dispute.  Graham has a wide correspondence throughout most of his life with prominent persons about state and national politics.  His papers also include material on legal business, the Graham family iron foundry, plantations, slavery, and overseers in North Carolina and South Carolina, affairs at the University of North Carolina, the Revolutionary history of North Carolina, and letters from sons in the Confederate army.  Later papers are of other member of his family, especially Augustus Washington Graham, lawyer of Hillsborough and Oxford, North Carolina. Volumes are personal accounts, school notebooks, and legal notes.   There is also an addition of typed copies of letters to and from W. A. Graham, 1857-1877, from this and other repositories, compiled as part of an editorial project.

14,000 items

Graves, Charles I.
Papers, 1831-1962

Chiefly correspondence of Charles Iverson and Margaret Graves especially documenting his military career in the U.S. and Confederate Navies, and his civilian engineering career, particularly his service in Egypt, but also his work on the Georgia Pacific and Memphis & Vicksburg Railroads.  The pair exchanged several hundred letters from 1875 to 1878 detailing his experiences in Egypt and her life at Locust Hill, Caswell County, North Carolina, where she tried to raise five children with limited economic resources.  There is also correspondence relating to the Charles Iverson Graves's time at the U.S. Naval Academy; to the Graves's courtship; to Graves's visit to Italy while in the U.S. Navy, including contact with Giuseppe Garibaldi; to the couple's independent struggles--he on active duty and she on the homefront at various places, including Mobile, Alabama--during the Civil War; and to the operation of the Graves's farm in Rome, Georgia.

1,500 items

Hardison, Osborne B.
Papers, 1912-1953

Official and service-related personal letters and papers.  The bulk of the material relates to World War II, when Hardison was commander of the aircraft carrier Enterprise in the Pacific, 1942-1943, and later chief of naval aviation training in the United States.

2,000 items

Harllee, William C.
Papers, 1685-1944

Papers of and collected by William Curry Harllee include letters and documents, 1685-1899 (in part copies) of his ancestors, particularly the Harllee family of Mars Bluff and Little Rock, South Carolina, including a few letters from a South Carolinian in Kansas, 1853; letters from Andrew Turpin Harllee describing public events in Washington, D.C., in 1860; and letters from a soldier in the 8th South Carolina Regiment, C.S.A., in Virginia.  From 1903 to 1918, the papers concern W. C. Harllee's military career, particularly his interest in marksmanship, the National Rifle Association, and his duties in small arms training for the Navy and Marine Corps during World War I.  Papers from 1919 relate to his interest in genealogy and preparation of a book of his findings.  The families in which he was interested were based in North and South Carolina, Florida, and Virginia.

2,500 items

Harris, George W.
Papers, 1861-1863

Letters, 30 October 1861, 20 December 1862, and 11 June 1863, to relatives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from Harris, a sailor on board USS Richmond in the vicinity of Baton Rouge, Port Hudson, and New Orleans, Louisiana, concerning military activity on the lower Mississippi River and Harris's commanding officers.

3 items

Harrison, Thomas L.
Papers, 1860

Photograph album consisting chiefly of pictures of Harrison's classmates in the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1860, and a few naval orders involving Harrison before and after his service in the Confederate Navy.

8 items

Herbert, Hilary A.
Papers, 1864-1931

Alabama and Washington, D.C., lawyer, author, Democratic U. S. Representative, 1877-1893, and Secretary of the Navy, 1893-1897.

Correspondence, writings, speeches, and scrapbooks of Hilary A. Herbert. Correspondence, 1892-1919, is with friends, including many national politicians, concerning politics, foreign affairs, and, from 1904, Reconstruction and the race question.  Also included are Herbert's speeches; a "History of the 9th Alabama Regiment, C.S.A.," written in 1864; European travel notes, 1887; historical, patriotic, and general articles; diary, 1910-1917; scrapbooks of his career; notes on his book, The Abolition Crusade and its Consequences; and reminiscences written 1903 and 1917 covering his early life in Laurens, South Carolina, and Greenville, Alabama, his education at the University of Alabama and the University of Virginia, his Confederate service, and his political career, and containing his reflections on slavery, abolition, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the race question.  Also included are scattered papers of his daughter, Ella Micou of Washington, D.C.

250 items

Heustis, James F.
Papers, 1851-1853

Books kept by Heustis of Alabama as U.S. Navy surgeon on board USS John Adams, including notes on weather, work, the ship's position, prescriptions, quarterly reports of cases of illness on board, medical notes, poems, and notes on church history.  The logbooks were kept while Heustis's ship was stationed near Norfolk, Virginia, at sea, and cruising off the west coast of Africa.

2 volumes

Hewes, Joseph
Papers, 1765-1776

Miscellaneous papers, consisting of copies of letters and originals of two letters and a postscript to a third letter from Hewes, signer of the Declaration of Independence from North Carolina and member of the Continental Congress.  The two letters were written from Philadelphia, 6 February and 27 March 1776, to Robert Smith, Williamsburg, Virginia; they concern the brig Fanny, lying in the York River, and arrangements for chartering vessels to go to Europe to procure articles needed by the Army and Navy and to sell tobacco and other American exports.  The postscript, 7 January 1776 [misdated 1775], is to a letter from Hewes to Samuel Johnston; it reports the arrival of vessels with powder and saltpeter.

8 items

Hoke, William A.
Papers, 1750-1925

Letters, financial and legal papers, genealogical papers, and other materials pertaining to William Alexander Hoke and members of the related Alexander, Henderson, McBee, and Wilson families.  Included is material on 19th-century North Carolina politics; an antebellum gold mining operation; John Franklin Hoke's involvement in the Mexican-American War; slavery, including slave bills of sale; the service of family members and others in the Confederate Army and Navy; the homefront during the Civil War; problems of Reconstruction, including references to activities of the Ku Klux Klan; the legal career of William Alexander Hoke; the brief theatrical career of Laura Alexander in the 1870s; and Sallie Badger Hoke's travels to Europe and Egypt in the 1880s.  Also included are North Carolina land records dating back to the 1750s as well as legal documents and financial items relating to family members.

11.5 feet

Hudson, William L.
Papers, 1840-1842

Journals kept by Hudson, commander of USS Peacock and second in command of the South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition, recording nautical information and shore activities along the west coast of North America, on Pacific islands, and in Singapore.

2 volumes

Johnston, Rufus Z.
Papers, 1895-1950

Official correspondence, papers, orders, clippings, and personal letters of Johnston while he served as an officer on board USS Oregon and USS Philadelphia; made a cruise around South America; participated in the battle of Santiago de Cuba in the Philippines during the insurrection; and served in the U.S. Navy in the Boxer Rebellion and in World War I. Included are a letter book, 1895-1927; records and orders; a narrative by Frederick C. Hicks of a South American voyage, 1924-1925, which included a diplomatic visit to Peru; and correspondence between Congressman Alfred Lee Bulwinkle and Johnston's sister about her accepting a foreign decoration for her brother.

500 items

Jones, Catesby ap Roger
Papers, 1836-1845

Although commencing on 18 December 1843, Jones's narrative begins retrospectively with his introduction to the Navy in June 1836. Jones made frequent use of ship's logs and recorded information regarding destinations, dates, distances, time traveled, days in port, weather, including a particularly fine description of a gale in which he believed his ship was sinking, and the names of his fellow officers.  Jones's oral examination for commissioned grade and his activities at sea and during lengthy furloughs with his family in Virginia are also described in the journal.

1 microfilm reel

King, Thomas B.
Papers, 1763-1925

Thomas Butler King of Retreat Plantation, Saint Simons Island, Georgia, was a Georgia and United States legislator, collector of the port of San Francisco, and Georgia representative to various courts in Europe during the Civil War, with special interests in internal improvements and naval affairs. Papers of King and his wife Anna Matilda Page King, 1835-1840, deal primarily with King's business, managerial, and legislative activities on behalf of the Brunswick and Altamaha Canal Company, the Brunswick and Florida Railroad Company, and the Brunswick Land Company. Papers, 1841-1848, document King's political career as U.S. Representative from Georgia's First Congressional District, which included Glynn County and the cities of Brunswick and Savannah. Among these are papers about his activities as member and chair of the U.S. House Naval Affairs Committee and about Whig political activities in Georgia, the South, and the nation. Materials, 1849-1852, deal with King's work in California, first as the personal adviser of President Zachary Taylor and then as the first collector of the port of San Francisco under Millard Fillmore. Between 1853 and 1859, papers deal with family matters and King's investments in and promotion of a transcontinental railroad through Texas. Papers, 1860-1864, relate to his promotion of railroads in south Georgia, his association with the secession crisis, and his activities on behalf of the state of Georgia and the Confederacy in various European capitals during the first years of the Civil War. Letters discussing plantation and family matters account for almost half of the collection. Most of these were written between 1850 and 1859 by Anna Matilda Page King, who chiefly discussed agricultural matters, including the treatment of slaves, but also expressed a certain amount of anti-Semitism and wrote of her experimentation with the occult.

11.5 feet

Langdon, Young, and Meares Families
Papers, 1771-1877

The collection includes letters, 1821-1838, from William Belvidere Meares to his brother-in-law James Alves of Henderson, Kentucky, about interests in slaves and a plantation and about community affairs in Wilmington; and letters, 1847-1859, from Paul H. Langdon and Samuel Langdon, U.S. Army officers, and Richard F. Langdon, a U.S. Navy officer, to their mother in Wilmington and to each other, written from Fort Laramie, Wyoming, Stockton and Mare Island, California, and other places in the West about travels to these places and conditions there.  Also included is a letter, 1858, to Richard F. Langdon from David G. Farragut, concerning Richard Langdon's service in several positions at Mare Island Naval Yard while Farragut was Commandant there.  A few financial items relating to members of the Halsey family are also included.

78 items

Long, Andrew T.
Papers, 1876-1943

Naval correspondence and social and personal letters of Andrew Theodore Long of Iredell County, North Carolina.  Most papers are from the 1920s, while Long was Director of Naval Intelligence, Chief of Staff for the Commander of the Atlantic Fleet, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, and member of the General Board of the Navy.  They include routine letters from high ranking American military and civilian officials.  Also included are manuscript memoirs of Long titled "Sixty Years Around the World," an album of photographs of ships, and an album of photographs of women of the South Pacific region.

1,200 items

Macay and McNeely Families
Papers, 1746-1918

Papers of the Macay and McNeely families of Rowan County, North Carolina Prominent family members included Spruce Macay (1755-1808), lawyer and judge, and his sons Alfred (d. 1827) and William Spruce.  In addition, there is material concerning the naval service of Robert W. McNeely, including letters describing his trips to the Azores, the British Isles, the Caribbean, Greece, the Mediterranean, Palestine, and Turkey, and letters from Cuba during the Spanish-American War.  There are also letters of Robert's wife Marie Calhoun Butler McNeely, who traveled with him to posts in the Orient, 1902-1908, and wrote of her experiences there. 

300 items

Maffitt, John N.
Papers, 1833-1911

Family, personal, business and official correspondence of J. N. Maffitt concerning his early career in the U.S. Navy; his Confederate service (for which there is also a journal) on board both combat and blockade running vessels, particularly CSS Florida; service as captain of a British vessel after the war; retirement to Wilmington, North Carolina, and literary activities; and the controversy over the alleged negligence of Commander George Henry Preble, U.S.N., for allowing CSS Florida to enter Mobile Bay in 1862.  Also included are papers of Maffitt's daughter, Florie, and his third wife, Emma Martin Maffitt, who published a book on her husband in 1906; scrapbooks; and a manuscript novel and speeches by Maffitt.

600 items

Mallory, Stephen R.
Papers, 1835-1873

Letters, chiefly 1835-1872, mainly from Stephen R. Mallory to his wife and children while he was a member of the U.S. Senate, in Richmond as Secretary of the Confederate Navy, as a prisoner of the federal government, 1865, and in Pensacola, Florida, during Reconstruction. Topics include social and political events in Washington, D.C., 1858; wartime conditions in Richmond, Virginia; conditions during Mallory's imprisonment, 1865; and his efforts to obtain a presidential pardon and re-establish himself in Pensacola, and the condition of the family home there; and letters, 1868-1871, to his son, Atilla, at college, giving him advice on social and study habits.

95 items

Martin, William F.
Papers, 1787-1884

Correspondence and business papers, including 21 volumes, chiefly of Martin and his brother, James G. Martin, adjutant general of North Carolina and Confederate brigadier general.  Much of the collection consists of legal papers, law account books, and other papers of W. F. Martin's law practice in northeastern North Carolina before and after the Civil War.  Also included are Civil War papers of his agent, Gilbert Elliott, who was involved in the construction of Confederate gunboats on the North Carolina coast; students' notebooks; volumes of accounts of or with the U.S. customs house for the Camden District, 1837-1843; journal of the schooner Bancroft mapping North Carolina coastal waters, 1852-1853; general merchandise accounts, 1855-1856 and 1865-1870, at Plymouth, North Carolina, and 1860-1861 at Elizabeth City; record of local and state taxes, 1860; merchandise accounts with ships, 1860-1862 and 1865-1867; order book and journal of a U.S. revenue sloop off the North Carolina coast, 1872-1875 and 1877-1879; letter book of the U.S. Life Saving Service at Elizabeth City and Manteo, 1878-1881; and other items.

1,900 items

Mason, John Y.
Papers, 1843-1898

Personal and professional correspondence of John Young Mason and of members of his family.  Original items are chiefly letters addressed to Mason, Secretary of the Navy, 1844-1849, mostly about such matters as gaining government employment and routine naval operations.  There are also letters about various political matters, and letters from managers of Virginia plantations that Mason owned, Day's Neck and Fortsville; from Simon Fraser Blunt describing San Francisco and other places in California; and to Mason's daughter Emily and her husband, Robert Jones Barksdale, about finances and family matters.  Typed transcriptions on microfilm consist chiefly of family correspondence of Mason, his wife, Mary Ann Fort Mason, their children, members of the families of the spouses of their children, and cousins.  These letters relate primarily to family news and activities on Mason's plantations.  There also are scattered professional letters to Mason and letters from John Y. Mason, Jr., a purser in the Navy, from China, Europe, California, and Hawaii, 1845-1851; from Lewis E. Mason, managing a plantation in Coahoma County, Mississippi, 1840s; and from St. George Tucker Mason, with the French Army after the Civil War.

1,500 items

Maurice Family
Papers, 1796-1959

Family correspondence and professional papers of Charles F. Maurice. Letters were written from many places by family members and friends, some in schools and colleges, traveling in the United States and abroad, and while serving in the U.S. Navy, especially 1838-1848 and 1862-1865.  Many describe social life in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.  Also included are the diaries of C. F. Maurice, C. S. Maurice, Charlotte (Holbrooke) Maurice, Marian B. Maurice, and George Otis Holbrooke; property and financial papers; writings of G. O. Holbrooke as a professor at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut; clippings and photographs; genealogical information; and collected autographs.

3,000 items

Maury, Matthew F.
Papers, 1788-1888

Chiefly family and business papers of Abram Poindexter Maury and Carey A. Harris.  Also included are some papers of Matthew Fontaine Maury, including a few letters from him, but chiefly papers about his death and the international testimonial fund for his family; and some family correspondence of Ann Maury.  The collection includes a letter, 1865, from Matthew Fontaine Maury describing a plan for re-settling southerners in Mexico; and letters, 1853-1854, from Carey A. Harris, a student at the University of Virginia, describing student life, including a duel.

77 items

McCully, Newton A.
Papers, 1923-1924

Diary kept by McCully during a period when he directed the U. S. Scouting Fleet off the Virginia coast and in other locations.  The diary contains records of activities of the fleet, orders, official social functions, and routine activities.

1 volume

Merrill, Aaron S.
Papers, 1912-1948

Naval and personal papers of Aaron Merrill, including diaries, newspaper clippings, printed materials, and photographs, chiefly documenting Merrill's activities in naval intelligence.  The bulk of the papers are for 1946-1947, when Merrill served as Commandant of the 8th Naval District.  Also included are a diary and other papers related to this activities as an intelligence officer in Asia Minor, 1920-1921; papers from his tour of duties in China, 1925-1927; a diary from his service in Santiago, Chile, 1936-1938; World War II dispatches and battle orders; log book as Commandant of the 8th Naval District, 1946-1947; personal files, 1939-1947; and various other items.

3,600 items

Middleton, Edward
Papers, 1810-1893

Chiefly official U.S. Navy correspondence received by Edward Middleton while he was serving in the Pacific Squadron off the coast of Mexico, Central America, and California, before, during, and after the Civil War. Also included is his statement of reasons for opposing secession.

200 items

Norfleet Family
Papers, 1784-1895

Correspondence, legal documents, land records, account books, plantation journals, and other records of the Norfleet family.  Six of the volumes are diaries or account books of Stephen Andrews Norfleet (1822-1910), proprietor of several plantations in Bertie County.  Accounts, 1844-1895, relate to slaves, debts, receipts, and expenditures. In his journals, 1856-1860 and 1870-1871, Stephen A. Norfleet recorded daily agricultural activities and the health of his slaves.  He also kept notes on navigation on the Roanoke River. Two volumes are the diary, 1891-1892, of Ernest Norfleet (1851-1901), a U.S. Navy surgeon, on a voyage to China and Japan, including descriptions of travel and social life in the Far East and references to Norfleet's interest in Eastern art.  Also included are family correspondence, 1820s-1900s and legal and business papers, early 1700s- early 1900s, of the plantations and of various family members.

350 items

North Carolina, USS
Records, 1825-1827

Daily logbooks of USS North Carolina, cruising the Mediterranean under the command of Captain John Rodgers, noting daily position, weather, activities on board, and places sighted and visited.  One volume covers the period 14 November 1825-31 March 1827; the second, kept by W. S. Ogden, 4 February-16 August 1826.

2 items

North, James H.
Papers, 1861

Papers include North's passport, telegrams, and a pocket diary begun after he resigned from the U.S. Navy, telling of visits to Charleston, Montgomery, Norfolk, Baltimore, New York City, and Philadelphia; the voyage to England with his wife, daughter, and Edward Clifford Anderson; and experiences in England and France, while purchasing supplies for the Confederate Navy.

5 items

Oneida, USS
Records, 1862-1863

Informal daily diary of activities, events, and weather, kept by various crew members of USS Oneida during the Civil War, and two pages, undated, of the "Report Book of Marine Guard, U.S. Sloop of WarSavannah." A pencil sketch of a steamer is included.  The Oneida participated in an expedition up the Mississippi River to Vicksburg, did blockade duty off Mobile and Pensacola, Florida, and visited the West Indies.

1 volume

Page, Richard L.
Papers, 1825-1864

Logs kept by Page while on board the frigate Brandywine, 1825-1826; the frigate Constitution, 1826-1828; the brig Perry, 1852; the sloop of war Germantown, 1857-1860; and his messages sent and received at Fort Morgan, when he was Confederate commander of the defenses of Mobile Bay, Alabama, 1864.

5 volumes

Phelon, Henry A.
Papers, 1861-1906

Letters primarily from Henry A. Phelon to his fiancée, Josephine Brand, containing descriptions of Civil War naval activity off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina, while he served as executive officer onVictoria and Commodore Perry, commanded the gunboat Shawsheen, served as executive officer of Atlanta, and, in July 1864, took command of Monticello in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron under Rear Admiral Samuel P. Lee, in whose squadron he later commanded Daylight.  Included are letters, 1880-1906, to Phelon from Thomas J. Woodward of New Orleans, discussing their shared wartime experiences and postwar lives; and correspondence with Katharine Abell Cushing of Fredonia, New York, daughter of Commodore William Barker Cushing, asking Phelon's help with a biography of her father.  Also included is biographical data about Phelon and some data concerning the pension Josephine Brand Phelon received after his death.

140 items

Philadelphia Navy Yard
Records, 1832-1877

Office files of successive commandants of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, including communications from various officials of the Navy, including the Secretary of the Navy; the Bureau of Construction, Equipment, & Repairs; Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, 1863; and other departments of the Navy. Also included is a letterpress copybook, 1832-1835, of James Barron at the Navy Yard, and official daily reports on activities, 1836-1837.

1,500 items

Saufley, Sallie R.
Papers, 1864-1916

Letters received, 1864-1867, by Sallie Rowan of Tennessee from Micah C. Saufley, describing his experiences as a Confederate soldier imprisoned at Fort Delaware, Delaware, his law studies and practice in Louisville and Monticello, Kentucky, and postwar conflicts of northern and southern sympathizers in Kentucky; letters from Sallie's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stokeley Donelson Rowan, in McMinnville, Tennessee, after her marriage in 1867; and letters, 1907-1916, from her son, Richard Caswell Saufley, U.S. naval officer, as a student at the United States Naval Academy, at sea, and as an aviator at Pensacola, Florida, about his military activities, his opinion of political affairs, and other matters.

115 items

Scales, Archibald H.
Papers, 1883-1929

Scrapbooks containing correspondence, pictures, and clippings documenting the career of Scales as a U.S. Naval Academy cadet, officer on active service, commander of the Great Lakes Training Station during World War I, and commander of the Naval Academy, 1919-1921.

6 volumes 

Sherman, Frederic
Papers, 1862-1863

Ten letters, 19 August 1862-21 May 1863, from Fredric Sherman, a Massachusetts sailor serving on board USS Morse on the James River and in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  The letters describe daily activities, military life, items he wants from home, the destruction of the Navy Yard at Norfolk by fire, and other events.

10 items 

Spears, William O.
Papers, 1914-1934

Personal and family papers of William Spears of Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S. Navy officer who ultimately rose to the rank of Rear Admiral.  The bulk of this collection consists of detailed letters to his wife, Blanche Snodgrass Spears, concerning his missions to Brazil, 1919-1927, and Peru, 1930-1933; and his service visits to Panama, Cuba, and other South American countries. There are many references to social activities and local political events. Other topics of discussion include Spears's command of various ships in the Atlantic Fleet, his shore life in the U.S., naval staff affairs in Washington, D.C., and activities of his family in Chattanoo, Georgia. Letters from his son William, Jr., relate to his first year at the U.S. Naval Academy, 1934.  Volumes include the household account book of Blanche Spears, 1915-1917, and three volumes of Spears's addresses, printed in Spanish, ca. 1930.

480 items

Staton, Adolphus
Papers, 1907-1936

Papers of Adolphus Staton, primarily relating to Staton's naval career, including personal and official correspondence, some with prominent military, naval, and political figures, including Calvin Coolidge, H. G. Rickover, and Josephus Daniels; and reports, clippings, newsletters, and other official publications of the U.S. Navy.  Topics of interest include Staton's command of various destroyers; Navy bureaucracy, relations with other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and internal politics; Staton's experiences in the Asiatic fleet, especially in China during the civil unrest of the 1920s; and his shore duty at the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Navigation, where he handled naval discipline and legal affairs.  There is also personal correspondence with friends and family discussing family matters, financial matters, and social news; scattered bills and receipts; and three volumes of scrapbooks containing clippings, photographs, and other memorabilia pertaining to Staton's naval career, 1918-1936.

4,400 items

Tomb, James H.
Papers, 1855-1936

Collection consists of the papers of two generations of naval officers. Papers of James Hamilton Tomb of Florida include his memoirs of the Civil War when he was a chief engineering officer in the Confederate Navy; correspondence (partly in Portuguese) while a Brazilian Navy officer, 1866-1867, and recollections and manuscript drawings of a torpedo which sank a Brazilian warship; and postwar correspondence about Civil War naval actions with former Confederate and Union Navy officers and other interested persons.  The Civil War papers especially concern Confederate torpedoes and the submarines used in the attempt to break the Charleston blockade.  Other papers include various records of the naval service of his sons, Captains William Victor Tomb and James Harvey Tomb, including a diary, 1917-1918, of W. V. Tomb while on convoy duty in the Atlantic during World War I.

350 items

Trenholm Family
Papers, 1865-1933

Six essays or speeches by Colonel William Lee Trenholm of Charleston, South Carolina, about the South, "King Cotton," the silver issue, and other matters; a play and other papers by his daughter, Kate Trenholm Abrams; a scrapbook of invitations, calling cards, etc.; and a scrapbook of World War I correspondence, photographs (including one of Josephus Daniels), memorabilia, and other items of Katherine T. Abrams (daughter of Kate T. Abrams), chief yeoman, Fitness Report Section, Bureau of Navigation, U.S. Navy Department.

18 items

Upshur, William P.
Papers, 1898-1928

Letters from William Upshur to his parents, Dr. and Mrs. John N. Upshur in Richmond, Virginia, written every few days, except during 1912, 1913, and 1923. The letters were written from the Virginia Military Institute, 1898-1901; University of Virginia, 1902-1903; the U.S. Naval Academy, 1904; on USS Kearsarge off the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies, 1905-1907; Virginia and South Carolina, 1908-1911; Peking, 1914; Haiti, 1915-1917; and at Quantico and Richmond, Virginia, Annapolis, Maryland, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and other American cities and marine stations, 1917-1928.  Upshur described his educational, military, and other experiences, as well as his surroundings and reflections, sometimes in significant detail.

1,000 items

Van Noppen, Leonard C.
Papers, 1888-1947

Correspondence and writings of Van Noppen, native of the Netherlands and poet who lived in New York and lectured on Dutch language and literature. The collection includes typescripts of his writings; correspondence concerning his education in North Carolina and the Netherlands; correspondence with friends and relatives, publishers, prospective employers, and literary patrons; correspondence while a U.S. Naval Attaché at the Hague and London during World War I; and a diary kept by Van Noppen while he was at the Hague, 9 April-17 September 1918, concerning meetings with Dutch leaders and the political situation in the Netherlands. Papers after Van Noppen's death concern his wife's efforts to have his long poem on evolution, "Cosmorama," edited and published; his wife's associations with Universal Order, a mystical cult; and, after Mrs. Van Noppen's death, disposition of the papers.

9,000 items

Winston, George T.
Papers, 1868-1906

Scattered papers of George Tayloe Winston and his sons, Patrick Henry Wilson and Hollis Taylor Winston.  Included are a memorandum book, 1879-1881, kept while George Tayloe Winston was a professor at the University of North Carolina, containing lecture notes on Roman history, a record of family expenses, and some records of Chapel Hill town school funds.  Also included are an account book, 1903-1906, kept by Patrick Henry Winston while he was attending the United States Military Academy at West Point; and a manuscript book, 1900-1906, kept by Hollis Taylor Winston while he was a U.S. Navy officer, containing pictures and technical descriptions of ships on which he served, notes on cruises, a description of a naval battle in Panama, 20 January 1902, and comments on the international affairs of Venezuela, 1902-1903.

16 items

Wirt Family
Papers, 1802-1925

Personal and family correspondence of William Wirt, of Virginia and Maryland, lawyer, author, and U.S. attorney general, and of his descendants, including letters, 1802-1822, concerning Wirt's biography of Patrick Henry and his other writings and business and financial affairs; family correspondence, 1824-1832, chiefly between Wirt and his son, William Cabbell Wirt, at school in Massachusetts; letters of condolence at Wirt's death; family letters from the Wirt children to their mother and to each other; family and naval correspondence, 1838-1867, of Wirt's son-in-law, Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough, serving with the U.S. Navy in Brazil, Europe, and Washington, D.C.; and papers, 1861-1919, of James McCutcheon Baker, of Florida, who married Wirt's granddaughter, concerning his Confederate naval career and postwar sea voyages, chiefly letters to his family in New Orleans.  Papers after 1900 are of Baker's wife and children.  Volumes include William Wirt's reminiscences of his early years, written in 1825 and 1833; Mrs. Wirt's lettercopy books, 1834-1841; and a lettercopy book, 1848-1849, of a woman relative teaching school in Pensacola, Florida.  Also included are fragments of William Wirt's manuscript on Patrick Henry.

464 items

Wood, John T.
Papers, 1858-1915

Included are descriptive letters, 1858-1860, from John Taylor Wood to his wife, Lola (MacKubin) Wood, written from Key West, Florida, France, Italy, Greece, and other places, and while at sea; diary, 1860-1861, of family life and public events while a professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and on his Maryland farm, including events leading to his resignation and concerning the Union's preparations for war; letters to his wife while in the Confederate Navy on Virginia rivers, discussing daily life, battles, and wanton destruction by Union forces; diary, April-July 1865, while he accompanied Jefferson Davis from Richmond and then escaped to Cuba and Canada; brief narrative by General John Cabell Breckinridge, who was with Wood on the escape to Cuba (typed copy); scattered letters received, 1865-1904, at Halifax, Nova Scotia; and a family history and scrapbook (microfilm).

201 items