Papers (1828-1880) including correspondence, photographs, daybook, account book, family history, a morning report form, certificate of oath, letters.
William Badham was born in Chowan County, N.C. On February 24, 1862, at the age of twenty-six, he enlisted in the Confederate service and was elected captain of what became Company B, 3rd Battalion, North Carolina Light Artillery. This company was also known as "Edenton Bell Battery" and as Badham's Battery. Badham saw action around Richmond, Va., and Wilmington, N.C., before being paroled at Greensboro, May 1, 1865. He married Louisa Jones of Chowan County and had at least two children, one of whom died at the age of nine months. [For more on the military career of Capt. Badham, see Louis H. Manarin, camp., North Carolina Troops, Vol. 1, Artillery (Raleigh: N.C. Dept. of Archives and History, 1966), 346 ff.]
Much of the collection centers around the Civil War. A letter (Feb. 5, 1865) written from a camp near Fort Anderson (Wilmington) during the Fort Fisher Campaign requests meat and lard from home and mentions enemy fire and enemy vessels in the river. Also included in the letter is a description and sketch of a log shelter in which Badham and three other men stayed while at Fort Anderson. Loose account sheets concern clothing and provisions for soldiers (1863) and a list of provisions with costs (1861).
An account book for 1862-1863, apparently kept by William Badham for his N.C. Light Artillery Company, contains accounts for horses, mules, and tents; copies of military letters and orders; military memoranda, including a request for sulfur to kill the lice on the horses; lists of provisions needed and provisions received from ordnance; and accounts for the company's mess needs. Also included are a list of soldiers in the company; names of soldiers on furlough, sick, or deserted; a list of men not on the muster or pay rolls; a list of items received from a Ladies Relief Society; and a request for clothing. A sketch of Redoubt Number 7 of the Richmond (Va.) line of defenses (September 1862) showing the location of guns and a table of the ranges of six- and twelve-pound field guns are also found in the account book.
Other Civil War era items found in the oversized folder include a Confederate thousand dollar Bond (1863) and the morning report for Co. B, 3rd Battalion, N.C. Light Artillery for February 1 to March 5, 1865, giving totals each day of men present, absent, sick, and captured.
Additional correspondence in the collection includes a letter (Oct. 20, 1867) concerning a dispute over the lease of a wharf in Edenton, N.C.; and miscellaneous family letters and memoranda, including an undated letter detailing activities on a trip to Baltimore, Maryland. An account book kept by William Badham (1828-1865) contains accounts (1828-1837) of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Edenton listing the amounts of salaries for the rector and sextant, as well as receipts for pew rents. Notes in this account book also concern Badham's going through his father's papers and renting his father's house (1864-1865) in Windsor, Bertie County, N.C., settling claims (1865), and listing gold prices and amounts (1851).[Note: this account book was returned to the donor and is no longer in this collection.]
Miscellaneous material in the collection consists of a certificate of oath for mail contractors and carriers (1880) signed by James H. Robinson; a deed (1878) concerning the sale of William Badham, Sr.'s, estate; a death notice (undated) for William and Louisa Badham's daughter Julia; a history of the Badham family; and a valentine made in 1865 by William Badham for his wife during the Seven Day Seige of Richmond.
Loaned by Mr. Richard Dillard Dixon, Jr.
Gift of Mr. Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr.
Processed by V. Jones, Jr., April 1991
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.