Papers (1856-1898) consisting correspondence in Civil War, letters, post-war correspondence, diaries, miscellaneous items about camp life, etc.
The collection contains the correspondence of Abraham Jones, a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. Jones, of Moravian descent, was a native of Bethania in Forsyth County, N.C.
The correspondence is divided into three sections. The first group consists of antebellum correspondence, the second group contains wartime correspondence, while the third group is for the post-war period.
The antebellum letters (1856-1860) mainly concern the activities of Jones at a boarding school in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. This correspondence relates the subjects taught, school expenses, and the textbooks used in the school.
The second group includes the majority of the correspondence in the collection. Jones, while serving in Company K in Colonel Peter G. Evans's Battalion, N.C. Partisan Rangers (part of the 5th Regiment N.C. Cavalry and later officially called the 63rd Regiment N.C. Troops), gives accounts of activities of both Union and Confederate armies in eastern North Carolina (1862-1863), in the vicinity of Culpeper Co., Va. (latter half of 1863), and in the campaign around Petersburg, Va. (1864).
Specific North Carolina references have to do with military activities near Plymouth, Washington, Windsor, Hamilton, Tarboro, Goldsboro, New Bern, and Kinston. Included are comments on treatment of civilians; burning of houses; and destruction of livestock, crops, and railroads. Other topics of interest include desertion in the Confederate Army (1863); the rise of anti-secessionist sentiment among some Southerners (1864); scarcity of provisions for the Confederate Army (1863); conditions in Winder Hospital and in Richmond, Virginia (November 1863); activities of Monroe's Volunteers of Monroe County, Mississippi, at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee (26 March 1862); treatment of Southern civilians by the Union Army (1862); camp life at Camp Vance (1-15 October 1862) and Camp Long (31 October - November 1862), both at Garysburg, N.C., and at Camp Singletary near Washington, N.C. (December 1862); duties of a troops in a Confederate Army camp (31 October 1862); Yankee raids into North Carolina; and reflection on the gubernatorial campaign between Holden and Vance (13 July 1864). One letter (8 May 1863) describes Jones's capture by the Yankees near Shepherdsville in Carteret Co., N.C., and on 24 May 1863, he writes home telling of his time as a prisoner-of-war and his impending exchange at City Point, Va.
Post-war correspondence mainly consists of letters written while Jones was studying medicine at the University of Virginia (1866) and in New York (1867). Items of Interest include life at the University of Virginia, tuition rates and subjects taught. Other letters and a daybook relate Jones's travels after he finished his studies. The 1870-1871 daybook reflects his trip through Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and his practice of medicine upon his return. Also, there is a letter (1898) referring to a speech made by Robert Glenn and to the campaign of 1898 in North Carolina.
Miscellaneous items include typed reminiscences of Jones's Civil War experiences especially relating being wounded at Chamberlain's Run near Petersburg, Va., and making his way to Danville, Va., to a hospital (April 1865); an 1864 Civil War diary (probably kept by Jones) telling of camp life, Union encounter in Virginia, and activities in the war; a loyalty oath signed by Abraham G. Jones on 22 September 1865; a contract of sale transferring twenty-nine enslaved people from their previous enslaver Jones' grandfather, Abraham Conrad or Forsyth County, N.C. to their new enslavers Julia Jones and her husband Beverly (1864); and the notes taken by Abraham G. Jones in medical school at the University of Virginia.
Loaned by Mrs. C. J. Lambe and Miss Nan F. Jones
Processed by R. Weaver; M. Elmore, July 2002
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Descriptions updated by Ashlyn Racine, May 2023
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.