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 William Nelson Pendleton Papers, #1466, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Miss Ellinor Porcher Gadsden and Miss Anzolette P. Gadsden of Lexington, Va., 1957

Additional Descriptive Resources

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

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: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, October 2010

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.

• Clergy--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Confederate States of America. Army of Northern Virginia--Records and correspondence.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Episcopal Church--Clergy--Appointment, call, and election.
• Episcopal Church--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Family--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Grace Episcopal Church (Lexington, Va.)--History.
• Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870--Tomb.
• Lexington (Va.)--Church history--19th century.
• Lexington (Va.)--Social conditions--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Nelson family.
• Page family.
• Pendleton family.
• Pendleton, William Nelson, 1809-1883.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

• William Nelson Pendleton Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

William Nelson Pendleton (1809-1883) was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, an Episcopal clergyman and schoolmaster in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, a Confederate brigadier general, serving under Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee, and rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Lexington, Va., 1853-1883. He married Anzolette Elizabeth Page in 1831, and they had 8 children. Their oldest daughter Susan married Confederate army officer Edwin Gray Lee (1836-1870), and their son, Alexander Swift Pendleton (1839-1864) was an officer in the Confederate army.

The collection includes correspondence of William Nelson Pendleton (1809-1883) and his family, and their Page, Nelson, Pendleton, and other Virginia relatives, giving an extensive picture of the social life and customs of Virginians in the 19th century. The 35 items dated earlier than 1837 are Nelson and Page family letters. Approximately 1,400 items were written during the Civil War years, including military communications among officers in the Virginia theatre of war, correspondence concerning promotions, personal rivalries and criticism among Confederate officers, letters to and from Mrs. Pendleton at Lexington, Va., and other members of the family. There is correspondence before, during, and after the war concerning the Episcopal Church and specifically the affairs of the Lexington church and threats to Pendleton's tenure as rector, and (from 1870 onwards) Pendleton's work in raising a Robert E. Lee memorial fund. There are also some papers relating to Pendleton's life in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland before he came to Lexington in 1853.