Digital Collections

Lipe Family Civil War Papers

The Lipe (or Leib) family lived in Deep Well (now Mooresville), Iredell County, North Carolina. The Lipe Family Civil War Papers collection consists of 27 letters by 7 different Confederate soldiers, telling of their experiences in the Civil War. Correspondents include J. L. Lipe,  George L. Kistler,  W. A. Wallace,  Thomas L. Purdie,  R. M. Emerson,  James C. Moore, Elburtus M. Kennerly, and  Eliza Ann Lipe.

George L. Bright Civil War Diary

George L. Bright was a band member of the 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (or 46th OVI), an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Bright’s diary details weather and marching conditions from January to September 1862 and in specific locations including Camp Logan, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; and Paducah, Kentucky. Bright’s entries also note days when he played his horn for regimental funerals.

Confederate Broadsides

The “Confederate Broadside Poetry Collection” at Wake Forest University consists of over 250 examples of poems written by Southerners and Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War. The collection includes some pamphlets and clippings, as well as broadsides.

Herbert E. Valentine Civil War Diary

Herbert Eugene Valentine, a native of Salem, Massachusetts, served in the Union Army, 23rd Massachusetts Volunteers, Co. F. A photographer by trade, Valentine was responsible for making maps and sketches and taking photographs for official army use. Valentine’s manuscript memoirs relate various anecdotes about his army experiences, mostly in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The original manuscript, housed in the Rare Books Department of Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University, is written longhand in a commercial ledger notebook. The text has been transcribed in full; gaps in pagination reflect the makeup of the original document.

Collection Finding Aids

Philip W. Morgan Civil War Papers

Diary of a Union soldier imprisoned at Andersonville, Ga. during the Civil War, with copies of a photograph, his service record, and biographical data. For more information, browse the Philip W. Morgan Civil War Papers finding aid.

Sanders Meredith Ingram Papers

S.M. Ingram attended Wake Forest College in the first class, 1834/35, and then returned in 1838-40. He served in the Mexican War as a volunteer from Tennessee, and briefly as a lieutenant in the 38th Regt. North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War. He was a planter in Richmond County, North Carolina and served in the  North Carolina General Assembly. For more information, browse the Sanders Meredith Ingram Papers finding aid.

E.B. Lane Civil War Papers

Collection consists of two letters from Lane to his sister-in-law, Mrs. J.H. Lane, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, and to his wife in Palatka, Florida discussing his clothing supply, their entrenchments, preaching, the death of Alexander Wilson, wounding of a company man, and a review for Jefferson Davis. The letters are written from Atlanta and Palmetto, GA. For more information, browse the E.B. Lane Civil War Papers finding aid.

Woodburn Family Papers

Copies of two letters March 19 and March 26 [Year?] written by Mrs. Jane A. Woodburn to  Thomas C. Woodburn, in camp at Raleigh, North Carolina with Company B, 2nd Regiment  North Carolina Home Guards,; the letters contain information on the Madison-Rockingham County, North Carolina area during the last months of the Civil War. There are also notes with the letters and a copy of an 1851 deed to the Madison Baptist Church, Madison, North Carolina. For more information, browse the Woodburn Family Papers finding aid.

Trezevant Harrison Papers

Harrison was a Baptist pastor in Virginia and Rockingham County, North Carolina. His papers consist of a pocket Bible he carried during the Civil War while a member of Company H, 13th Regiment Virginia Infantry; a photograph; and other family papers. For more information, browse the Trezevany Harrison Papers finding aid.

Alexander Bell Smith Papers

This certified carbon copy of materials from the album of Rev. Alexander B. Smith, contains birth and death dates, family information, sermon notes, notes of a student, and a Civil War letter from M.A. Nelms to her husband Capt. E. Nelms, 9th Regt, Miss. Inf., Nov. 15, 1861. For more information, browse the Alexander Bell Smith Papers finding aid.

John Pennel Civil War Letters

Pennel was Corp. Co. B, 2nd Regt. North Carolina Cavalry. Service record (printed) and letters of Corp. Pennel from Wilkes County, North Carolina, written from Aquia Creek, Virginia, Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Goldsborough, North Carolina. Letters include descriptions of the movements of the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry, his illnesses, camp life, and requests for food and clothing items from home. For more information, browse the John Pennel Civil War Letters finding aid.

John Francis Lanneau Papers

Collection consists of writings and pamphlets of Lanneau, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and professor of mathematics at Furman College, where he organized his students into a company known as the “Brooks Troop” that later joined Hampton’s South Carolina Legion. After the war he was professor of mathematics at Wake Forest College. This collection contains his “Remembrances of the Civil War” with a photograph of Lanneau on the cover; genealogical information on the  Lanneau family; a three-page outline on  Bazile Lanneau of Charleston, South Carolina, 1746-1833: His Descendents and Relatives; a photocopy of photographs of Lanneau Family gravestones, Wake Forest, North Carolina; and pamphlets by Dr. Lanneau. For more information, browse the John Francis Lanneau Papers finding aid.

Calvin Green Strayhorn Memorandum Book

Calivin Green Strayhorn attended Wake Forest College, 1848-49, and was later a teacher, planter, and miller in Orange and Granville countries, North Carolina, and in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Thomasville, North Carolina. His “Memorandum Book, Wake Forest College” [cover title] contains marriages and deaths, primarily in  Orange County, North Carolina; Strayhorn’s poetry and musical compositions; his religious conversion, ca. April-May, 1852; a list of North Carolina Civil War regiments (1st-38th) and their colonels; and brief entries of his movements, Oct. 1850-Dec. 1851. For more information, browse the Calvin Green Strayhorn Memorandum Book finding aid.

Choate Family Papers

These papers of a family living in Alleghany County, North Carolina consists primarily of correspondence between William Thomas Choate (1832-64) and his wife,  Martha (Fender) Choate (1836-97), during his service as a officer in Company I, 61st Regiment, North Carolina State Troops during the Civil War. His letters are concerned with camp life, the Battle of Antietam, casualties, sickness in his company, and the need for food and clothing from home. Her letters are about the family and neighbors, deaths in the family and neighborhood, sickness, running the family farm, care of livestock, and her wanting William to come home. Other correspondents include William Choate’s brothers, friends, and relatives. For more information, browse the Choate Family Papers finding aid.

McNeill-Poteat Family Papers

Incoming correspondence, financial and legal records of Hosea McNeill (ca. 1784-1857) and his son-in-law James Poteat (1808-88). These records are concerned primarily with the Norfleet, Williams and Graves families and include the Civil War letters of Felix L. Poteat, and  John M. Poteat, and a journal of a trip to Tennessee in 1833. There are miscellaneous records and family photographs of James, John, Miles, Linday, James Preston, William Louis, Mrs. Julia A., and Edwin McNeill Poteat. For more information, browse the McNeill-Poteat Family Papers finding aid.

William Bailey Royall Papers

William Bailey Royall was an alumnus of Wake Forest College (Class of 1861), a member of the Santee Artillery (South Carolina) and later chaplain of the 55th North Carolina Regiment during the Civil War; professor of Greek and bursar of Wake Forest College for sixty years, and a Baptist minister. His papers consist of biographical data, memorial addresses and speeches, his military record as chaplain, his obituary, receipts, photograph, notebook, and subject files. The bulk of the collection consists of grade and attendance reports from Wake Forest College professors. For more information, browse the William Bailey Royall Papers finding aid.

Taylor-Crittenden Family Papers

This collection contains biographical/genealogical items; correspondence; diaries; education files; photographs; scrapbooks and clippings; articles and other literary productions of the Duggan, Prichard, Crittenden, and  Taylor families of North Carolina and Virginia. Subjects include the education of family members at Chowan Baptist Female Institute; Oxford Female College; the  Arts Student League, New York; the effect of the Civil War on the family; and missionary endeavors in Mexico and Puerto Rico. For more information, browse the Taylor-Crittenden Family Papers finding aid.