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Collection Number: 03678-z

Collection Title: William Henry Cooley Papers, 1861-1864

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.

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Size 48 items
Abstract William Henry Cooley (also spelled Coley) was the son of Zalmon Cooley of Cold Spring, Fairfield County, Conn. He served in Company H, 1st Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers in the summer of 1861 and re-enlisted in the fall in Company G of the 7th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers. The collection includes Civil War letters written to his family by Cooley serving in northern Virginia and on the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The letters contain considerable information on military life, conditions at camp, events around him, rumors, activity of his unit, guesses about the future, and other matters. Also included are a tintype of William Henry Cooley; three letters written by his sister, Eliza Gilbert; and a fragment of a letter by Eliza Gilbert's husband Walter.
Creator Cooley, William Henry, 1840-1864.
Curatorial Unit Southern Historical Collection
Language English.
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the William Henry Cooley Papers #3678-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
Microfilm copy (filmed October 2003) available.
  • Reel 1: folder 1 of 1
Provenance
Received from Charles Hamilton of New York, N.Y., in April 1964.
Sensitive Materials Statement
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.
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The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

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William Henry Cooley (also spelled Coley) was the son of Zalmon Cooley of Cold Spring, Fairfield County, Conn. He served in Company H, 1st Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers in the summer of 1861 and re-enlisted in the fall in Company G of the 7th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers.

Cooley died on 2 June 1864.

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The collection includes Civil War letters written to his family by William Henry Cooley of Cold Spring, Conn., serving in northern Virginia and on the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The letters contain considerable information on military life, conditions at camp, events around him, rumors, activity of his unit, guesses about the future, and other matters. Also included are a tintype of Cooley; three letters written by his sister, Eliza Gilbert; and a fragment of a letter by Eliza Gilbert's husband Walter.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Papers, 1861-1864.

48 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Civil War letters written to his family by William Henry Cooley serving in northern Virginia and on the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The letters contain considerable information on military life, conditions at camp, events around him, rumors, activity of his unit, guesses about the future, and other matters.

The letters are addressed to Cooley's parents and his sister, Susan "Frank" Cooley, at Cold Spring, Conn. They were written from the Washington, D.C., area; from Hilton Head, Beaufort, St. Helena, and Morris Island, S.C.; Tybee Island and Fort Pulaski, Ga.; Fernandina and St. Augustine, Fla.; and Gloucester Point and Hampton, Va.

Also included are three letters written by Eliza A. Gilbert, sister of Cooley, following the death of her husband Walter in 1863 and a fragment of a letter from Walter at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital, probably written about February 1863. Eliza Gilbert lived in Ogle, Ill.

There is also a tintype of William Henry Cooley in uniform.

Folder 1

Letters

Special Format Image SF-P-03678/1

Tintype

Reel M-03678/1

Microfilm

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Tintype (SF-P-3678)

Microfilm (M-3678/1)

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