Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Macon Bonner Papers, #3758-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Loaned by Miriam Bonner (Mrs. Frederick A.) Camp of Los Angeles, Calif., November 1966.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, May 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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.

• Bald Head Island (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Bonner, Macon, b. 1836.
• Bonner, Virginia Ellison.
• Coast defenses--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 31st.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 40th.
• Fort Fisher (N.C.)
• Fort Holmes (N.C.)
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1861-1865.
• Smith Island (N.C.)
• Southport (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Wilmington (N.C.)--History--19th century.

Macon Bonner (born 1836) of Washington, N.C., was a Confederate artillery officer who served in coastal North Carolina. Bonner joined Company B, which had been organized in Beaufort County, N.C., in September 1861. The company was later attached to the 31st and 40th North Carolina Regiments in the Cape Fear defenses at Fort Fisher, 1862-1864, and at Fort Holmes on Smith Island (Bald Head Island), February-November 1864.

Bonner was married to Virginia "Jennie" Ellison Bonner and they had two children, Richard Lee and Lida.

The collection includes sixty-six letters by Macon Bonner to his wife, Virginia Ellison Bonner, while he was attached to the 31st and 40th North Carolina Regiments serving in the Southport and Wilmington, N.C., areas on garrison and picket duty at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The letters report news of military activities in eastern North Carolina and give accounts of events and conditions at Fort Fisher and Smith Island, N.C. Letters also discuss the general political and military situation of the Confederacy and the state of North Carolina and give news of many friends and relatives in the service and in eastern North Carolina towns.