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 Elizabeth Pendleton Coles Papers, #3325-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Margaret Wadworth, Mrs. Martin Cannon, and Mrs. Doggett, 1957 and 1962.

Additional Descriptive Resources

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

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: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, March 2009; Dawne Howard Lucas, December 2021

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.

• Coles family.
• Coles, Elizabeth Pendleton.
• Coles, Walter, 1772-1854.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Dwellings--Photographs--History--19th century.
• Fathers and daughters--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Innes, Harry, 1752-1816.
• Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.
• Pendleton family--Photographs.
• Pendleton, Edmund, 1721-1803.
• Pendleton, Edmund, 1823-1899.
• Railroads--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Salem Academy and College (Winston-Salem, N.C.)--Students--History--19th century.
• Virginia--Politics and government--1775-1865.
• Women--Education--North Carolina--History--19th century.

Elizabeth Pendleton Coles was the daughter of Edmund Pendleton (1823-1899), member of the first graduating class at the Virginia Military Institute, 1842; lawyer in Botetourt County, Va., Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Orleans, La., before the Civil War; colonel of the 15th Louisiana Regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia; lawyer in Buchanan and Lexington, Va., after the war; and member of the Virginia state legislature, 1869. She was the second wife of Walter Coles, whom she married in 1872. Their son, Edmund Pendleton Coles, was born in 1873.

The collection includes letters to Elizabeth Pendleton Coles from her father, Edmund Pendleton (1823-1899), when he was a Confederate officer in Virginia and a lawyer at Buchanan, Va., noting his military activities and giving her advice about her education when she was a student, apparently at Salem Female Academy in Salem, N.C.; a letter, 1791, to Harry Innes (1752-1816), member of the first Kentucky constitutional convention, from Edmund Pendleton (1721-1803), Virginia Revolutionary leader and jurist, discussing the organization of the government of Virginia; a manuscript draft of a statement (2 pages) by General Robert E. Lee, 1869, to officials and citizens of Baltimore, Md., endorsing the project of a Shenandoah Valley Railroad; an album of pictures of Pendleton family members and house interiors; pages with family data from Bibles of members of the family of Walter Coles (1772-1854) of Albemarle County, Va.; and other items.

• Photographs (PF-3325/1-2 and SF-P-3325/1)
• Separated folder (SEP-3325/1)