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 | 4.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2200 items) |
Abstract | Berry Benson (1843-1923) of Hamburg, S.C., was a white Confederate army soldier in the 1st South Carolina Regiment. After the war he lived at Augusta, Ga., where he was a teacher, cotton trader, author, and inventor of a remunerative bookkeeping technique. The collection contains correspondence, writings, notes, American Civil War diary and reminiscences, and other papers of Benson relating to his early life, family history, and Civil War career. Writings include fiction; poetry; plays; humor; and commentary related to the Civil War, including Benson's experiences at the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness; his escape from Elmira Prison; manners and mores; and other subjects. Other papers relate to Benson's expertise in handwriting, codes, ciphers, mycology, and other matters. Also included are full diaries from 1880 and 1884 regarding his travels in Mexico, Cuba, and Texas. |
Creator | Benson, Berry, 1843-1923. |
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, November 2010; Nancy Kaiser, August 2023
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.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
Titles and descriptions provided by creator of the collection are indicated with quotation marks. In August 2023, archivists reviewed the title language of folder 65 and decided not to remove the racial term because we feel it provides important historical context about the materials and who created them and facilitates the research process. We acknowledge that the term as used in this context also may cause harm and will periodically revisit our decision to include it. We recognize the complexity of this issue and welcome feedback on this decision at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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.
Berry Benson (1843-1923) of Hamburg, S.C., was a white Confederate army soldier and author. During the American Civil War, Benson was in the 1st South Carolina Regiment, taking part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness, and escaped from the federal prison at Elmira, N.Y., by digging a tunnel. After the war he lived at Augusta, Ga., where he was a teacher, cotton trader, author, and inventor of a remunerative bookkeeping technique. Benson's Civil War experiences were published in Berry Benson's Civil War Book: Memoirs of a Conferate Scout and Sharpshooter, edited by Susan Williams Benson (1962). The book primarily comprises Benson's diary, memoirs, letters, and the diary of his brother.
Back to TopThe collection contains correspondence, writings, notes, American Civil War diary and reminiscences, and other papers of Berry Benson (1843-1923) relating to his early life, family history, and Civil War career. Writings include fiction; poetry; plays; humor; and commentary related to the Civil War, including Benson's experiences at the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness; his escape from Elmira Prison; manners and mores; and other subjects. Other papers relate to Benson's expertise in handwriting, codes, ciphers, mycology, and other matters. Also included are full diaries from 1880 and 1884 regarding his his travels in Mexico, Cuba, and Texas.
Back to TopArrangement: Chronological.
Correspondence of Berry Benson. Topics include his experiences during the American Civil War, his escape from Elmira Prison, travels, correspondence with publishing houses regarding his writings, codes and cryptograms, civic matters, and the adoption of war orphans in Europe.
Folder 1a |
Original finding aid |
Folder 1 |
1845; 1863-1877 |
Folder 2 |
1878-1883 |
Folder 3 |
1884-1893 |
Folder 4 |
1894-1895 |
Folder 5 |
1896-1898 |
Folder 6 |
1899-1900 |
Folder 7 |
1901 |
Folder 8 |
1902 |
Folder 9 |
1903-1909 |
Folder 10 |
1910-1911 |
Folder 11-13
Folder 11Folder 12Folder 13 |
1912 |
Folder 14-17
Folder 14Folder 15Folder 16Folder 17 |
1913 |
Folder 18 |
1914 |
Folder 19 |
1915 |
Folder 20 |
1916-1917 |
Folder 21 |
1918-1919 |
Folder 22 |
1920 |
Folder 23 |
1921-1922 |
Folder 24 |
Undated |
Writings of Berry Benson, chiefly on the American Civil War, includes manuscripts, stories, remininscences, notes, clippings, diaries, and his memoir.
Folder 25 |
"Little Joe" |
Folder 26 |
"The Flying Auto" |
Folder 27a |
"Martha" and "Who Killed General Sedgwick?" |
Folder 27b |
"Sergent John Derrick" |
Folder 28 |
"How I Lifted the Colonel's Mare" |
Folder 29-31
Folder 29Folder 30Folder 31 |
Miscellaneous manuscripts |
Folder 32-34
Folder 32Folder 33Folder 34 |
Poems |
Folder 35a-35e |
Outlines, ideas, rough drafts, and fragments |
Folder 36a-36c |
Problems, puzzles and cyphers, codes |
Folder 37-38
Folder 37Folder 38 |
Clippings |
Folder 39 |
"Escape" |
Folder 40-51
Folder 40Folder 41Folder 42Folder 43Folder 44Folder 45Folder 46Folder 47Folder 48Folder 49Folder 50Folder 51 |
Miscellaneous writings |
Folder 52-56
Folder 52Folder 53Folder 54Folder 55Folder 56 |
Volumes 1-51 March-29 May 1880: Benson's travel diaries and notes on trip to Mexico, the West Indies, and Havana. |
Folder 57 |
Volume 6March-April 1884: Diary and memoranda on trip to Mexico and Texas. |
Folder 58 |
Volume 71884-1885: Benson's record of his manuscripts submitted for publication, and whether or not they were accepted. Incomplete. |
Folder 59 |
Volume 81893: Scrapbook containing clippings of Benson's series "I and My Comrade" published in ten installments in the Augusta Chronicle from 13 August-26 November 1893. |
Folder 60 |
Volume 91893-1894, 1897: Notes, drawings, and other studies on poisonous mushrooms. |
Folder 61a |
Volume 101877: Benson's memoirs, handwritten. See also Transcription Volumes TV-2636/1-2 |
Transcription Volume TV-2636/1-2
TV-2636/1TV-2636/2 |
Transcription Volumes of Berry Benson's memoirs |
Folder 61b |
Loose material probably from Volume 10 |
Folder 62 |
Volume 11Annotated copy of Elmira Prison Camp, by C.W. Holmes (1912). |
Folder 63-64
Folder 63Folder 64 |
Volumes 12-13Typed American Civil War reminiscences. |
Folder 65 |
Volume 14"Black Tom" |
Folder 66-69
Folder 66Folder 67Folder 68Folder 69 |
Volumes 15-18Pocket notebooks with notes, poems, and other writings. |
Folder 70 |
Volume 19Loose material mostly related to the American Civil War, includes drawings and postcards. |
Folder 71 |
Folder number not used |
Special Format Image SF-P-2636/1 |
Glass negative: 1 November 1864, Provost Marshal's office pass |
Special Format Image SF-P-2636/2 |
Glass negative: 28 October 1864, order |
Special Format Image SF-P-2636/3 |
Glass negative: 30 October 1864, order |