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.
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.
Size | 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 400 items) |
Abstract | Benedict Joseph Semmes (1823-1902) was a wholesale merchant of Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn., a Confederate commisary officer, and was to married Jorantha Jordan of New York City. This collection contains correspondence between Semmes and Jordan during their engagement and first 16 years of marriage. Letters from 1848-April 1849 (62 items) were written during their engagement when Semmes was in Washington, D.C. and Jordan resided in New York City. Topics include family and social affairs, religion, and their ideas about life and marriage. Letters from June 1849-1859 (31 items) mostly discuss family matters and social life, but also the wholesale grocery business and moving to Memphis, Tenn. Letters from 1862-1865 (128 items) concern Semmes's experiences with the Confederate Army in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia, discussing supplying the army, camp life, military engagements (especially the Atlanta Campaign of 1864), rumors, and news of friends. Jorantha's letters discuss family life, the grocery business, reports of rumors, conditions in Memphis under Union occupation, and the family's removal to Canton, Miss. |
Creator | Semmes, Benedict Joseph, 1823-1902. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
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.
Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.
Back to TopThe 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.
Benedict Joseph Semmes (1823-1902) was a wholesale merchant of Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn. During the Civil War he served first as a Tenessee Volunteer, and subsequently as Chief Depot Commisary in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. He was married to Jorantha Jordan of New York City.
Back to TopThis collection contains correspondence between Benedict Joseph Semmes (1823-1902) and Jorantha Jordan during their engagement and first 16 years of marriage. Letters from 1848-April 1849 (62 items) were written during their engagement when Semmes was in Washington, D.C. and Jordan resided in New York City. Topics include family and social affairs, religion, and their ideas about life and marriage. Letters from June 1849-1859 (31 items) mostly discuss family matters and social life, but also the wholesale grocery business and moving to Memphis, Tenn. Letters from 1862-1865 (128 items) concern Semmes's experiences with the Confederate Army in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia, discussing supplying the army, camp life, military engagements (especially the Atlanta Campaign of 1864), rumors, and news of friends. Jorantha's letters discussed family life, the grocery business, reports of rumors, conditions in Memphis under Union occupation, and the family's removal to Canton, Miss.
Back to TopArrangement: Chronological
Folder 1a |
Original finding aid |
Folder 1 |
1848 |
Folder 2 |
1849 |
Folder 3 |
1850-1852 |
Folder 4 |
1853-1854 |
Folder 5 |
1855-1858 |
Folder 6 |
1859 |
Folder 7 |
1861-1862 |
Folder 8 |
January 1863-May 1863 |
Folder 9 |
June 1863-September 1863 |
Folder 10 |
October 1863-December 1863 |
Folder 11 |
January 1864-April 1864 |
Folder 12 |
May 1864-July 1864 |
Folder 13 |
August 1864-December 1864 |
Folder 14 |
1865 |
Folder 15 |
Undated and fragments |