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 Henry Oman Papers, #5746-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from George Peters in June 2017 (Acc. 103096).

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: Mary Oliva, July 2017

Encoded by: Mary Oliva, July 2017

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.

• Oman, Henry, 1835-1863.
• Oman, Sarah Mentzer.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• United States. Army. Illinois Infantry Regiment, 124th (1862-1865)
• United States. Army. Military life.
• Vicksburg (Miss.)--History--Siege, 1863.

Henry Oman (1834-1863) was born in Newport, R.I., and married Sarah Abbie Mentzer (1835-1918) on 27 Feb 1855 in Stow, Mass. Henry and Sarah moved to a farm in Kewanee, Ill., and had a daughter, Alice, in 1859, and a son, Henry, in 1863. On 8 August 1862, Oman enrolled in the newly begun muster roll for what became Company A for the 124th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The regiment mustered into federal service and then traveled to the front in Jackson, Tenn. Oman served as a private through the Siege of Vicksburg, but became ill with typhoid fever, which resulted in his death on 18 August 1863.

Sarah moved back to Massachusetts with the children and remarried twice, to Henry Stiles in 1869 until his death in 1870, and to Edward Francis Green in 1871 until his death in 1913.

The collection contains ten letters from Henry Oman to his wife, Sarah Mentzer Oman, sent during his service with the 124th Illinois Infantry, primarily in Mississippi. Oman's letters include writings on his religious beliefs and practices, shared acquaintances, interactions with enslaved people on plantations, the Siege of Vicksburg, and plans for the future.

Some letters contain notes made by one of Oman's daughter Alice's four children, who had each been given some of the letters from their mother.