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 | 2.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 800 items) |
Abstract | Raleigh Edward Colston (1825-1896) was born in France of American parents. He was a college professor in Virginia; Confederate brigadier general; headmaster of military schools in North Carolina; on the general staff of the Egyptian Army, 1873-1878; lecturer and author; and clerk in the United States War Department, 1883-1894. The collection is primarily military correspondence of Colston concerning Confederate Army movements and organization in Virginia, and personal letters to his family during and after the war. The personal correspondence includes letters to his daughters, Lou (Colston) Byrne Ragland and Mary (Colston) Lippitt, containing fatherly advice; and discussions of his health, especially as he began to need nursing care. Also included is correspondence with Egyptian and Confederate army officers, American magazine editors, appreciative readers, and friends; a diary (10 volumes), 1874-1896, brief and irregular, describing life in the Egyptian Army and travels in Africa and Europe, as well as life in Washington, D.C., and gradually declining health; clippings of magazine articles by Colston, mainly on Confederate and Egyptian topics; and a few letters in the 1840s from his parents, Virginians living in France. |
Creator | Colston, Raleigh Edward, 1825-1896. |
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: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, November 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.
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.
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Raleigh Edward Colston (1825-1896) was born in France of American parents. Colston was a college professor in Virginia; Confederate brigadier general; headmaster of military schools in North Carolina; on the general staff of the Egyptian Army, 1873-1878; lecturer and author; and clerk in the United States War Department, 1883-1894. He was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va.
Colston and his wife had two daughters, Lou Colston Byrne Ragland and Mary Colston Lippitt.
Back to TopThe collection includes military correspondence of Raleigh Edward Colston concerning Confederate Army movements and organization in Virginia, and personal letters to his family during and after the war. The personal correspondence includes letters to his daughters, Lou (Colston) Byrne Ragland and Mary (Colston) Lippitt, containing fatherly advice; and discussions of his health, especially as he began to need nursing care.
Civil War papers include personal letters from Raleigh Edward Colston to his family, especially his daughter Lou, and official military correspondence, orders, and other papers of Colston as an officer in the Confederate Army at various locations in Virginia. Among the items are a regimental report on the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va., 1863, and a letter from Robert E. Lee to Colston regarding his removal from command of a North Carolina brigade due to his being a Virginian.
Papers, 1873-1878, are chiefly related to Colston's appointment as professor of geology at the Military College of Cairo, Egypt, and as an officer in the General Staff of the Egyptian Army. Correspondence is with family members and colleagues and discusses expeditions to Northern and Central Africa and the state of Colston's health.
Letters, 1878-1896, after Colston's return to the United States from Egypt are chiefly to his daughter Lou (Colston) Byrne Ragland and pertain to his health, daily life, and happenings around Washington, D.C. There is also correspondence related to Colton's search for employment and to his writings on Africa and the Civil War.
The earliest papers, 1842-1846, are letters from Raleigh Edward Colston's parents, Virginians living in France, concerning Colston's education at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va.
Also included is a diary (10 volumes), 1874-1896, brief and irregular, describing life in the Egyptian Army and travels in Africa and Europe, as well as life in Washington, D.C., and gradually declining health; clippings of magazine articles by Colston; and photographs including portraits of Raleigh Edward Colston and picture related to his time in Egypt.
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