Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

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 Benjamin Franklin Little Papers #3954, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy available.

All or part of this collection is also available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Jean McAlister in 1972.

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.

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.

• Account books--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Carlisle Plantation (Richmond County, N.C.)
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Confederate States of America. Army--African Americans.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 52nd.
• Cotton growing--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Davidson College--Students--History--19th century.
• Democratic National Convention (1876 : Saint Louis, Mo.)
• Democratic Party (U.S.)--History--19th century.
• Dry-goods--North Carolina.
• Estates (Law)--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Horse breeders--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Horse racing--North Carolina.
• Immigrants--United States--History--19th century.
• Legislators--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Little family.
• Little, Benjamin Franklin, 1830-1879.
• Little, Mary Jane Reid.
• Little, Rufus, b. 1860.
• Maryland--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Merchants--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Pennsylvania--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Pettigrew, James Johnston, 1828-1863--Photographs.
• Plantation owners--North Carolina.
• Plantations--North Carolina--Richmond County.
• Raleigh (N.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Reid family.
• Richmond County (N.C.)--Climate--History--19th century.
• Richmond County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• School notebooks--History--19th century.
• Slave records--North Carolina.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Students--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Tenant farmers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Hospitals.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Medical care.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives, Confederate.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Prisoners and prisons.
• United States. Army--Surgeons.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

• Latta Family papers (#1076), Southern Historical Collection
• Rufus Reid papers (#2712), Southern Historical Collection
• Alexander M. McCallister papers (#4310), Southern Historical Collection
• Little Family papers (#4396), Southern Historical Collection
• Confederate Bonds, North Carolina Gallery

Benjamin Franklin Little (1830-1879), planter, of Carlisle Plantation in Richmond County, N.C., was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Little. In 1858, he married Mary Jane Reid (knowns as "Flax"), the daughter of Rufus Reid of Mount Mourne, Iredell County, N.C., and his first wife Nancy Latta, who was the daughter of James and Jane Latta of Mecklenburg County, N.C. Children of Benjamin and Mary Jane included sons Rufus (b. 1860), Lacy, and Tom, and daughters Nancy and Sallie. Two others, Homer and Jennie, died of diphtheria about 1864.

Benjamin Franklin Little served in North Carolina and Virginia as a captain in the 52nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 1862-1863; was wounded and captured at Gettysburg (arm amputated in July 1863), where he received a field promotion to colonel; and was imprisoned at Fort McHenry, Md., until March 1864. After the Civil War, he continued farming and became a partner with James A. Liles of Anson County, N.C., in a dry goods business. He was also a trustee of Deshler Female Institute, Tuscumbia, Ala., and a director of the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad. He represented Richmond County in the North Carolina legislature, 1864-1865, and was a delegate to the 1876 Democratic National Convention in Saint Louis, Mo. He died at Carlisle, Little's Mill, Richmond County, N.C., in 1879.

The papers of plantation owner, merchant, Confederate States of America army officer, and North Carolina state legislator Benjamin Franklin Little of Carlisle plantation, Richmond County, N.C., include correspondence, financial and legal materials, writings, volumes, photographs, and other papers. Many letters were written by Benjamin Franklin Little to Mary Jane Reid Little as one or the other traveled on business or family visits, 1857-1860, and after 1865. Civil War letters, 1862-1864, were written by Benjamin Franklin Little from Camp Mangum near Raleigh, N.C., and from the North Carolina and Virginia-Pennsylvania theaters. They include accounts of battles, his feelings about the war, his daily activities, conditions in camp, and other information. Little frequently mentioned Wiley, the slave who accompanied him throughout the war, and sent instructions to Henry, the slave who managed Carlisle in Little's absence. After Gettysburg, there are letters Benjamin Franklin Little's army associates and from L. M. Oakley, Little's Union surgeon who appears to have amputated Little's arm in 1863, as well as from Little himself in hospitals and prisons in Maryland and Pennsylvania. In 1864 and 1865, there are a few letters relating to Little's service in the North Carolina state legislature, and, in 1876, letters from Little serving as a delegate to the Democratic Convention in Saint Louis, Mo. Beginning in 1877, there are a number of letters to Rufus Little, a student at Davidson College, Mecklenburg County, N.C.; most post-1879 letters are to Rufus Little about his horse breeding and horse racing interests. Financial and legal materials, 1833-1878, chiefly relate to Benjamin Franklin Little and his father, Thomas Little. They include a deed, 1833, conveying slaves; valuation and division of slaves to settle an estate, 1853; agreements, 1871, relating to Little's dry goods business; an undated contract with "freedmen and women" tenant farmers and set of plantation rules and regulations; and other items. Writings include speeches by Little, chiefly at educational institutions, and notes for poems and other writings. Volumes include a school notebook of Thomas Little with a short journal of his 1806 voyage as an immigrant from England to the United States; account books detailing cotton production with names of pickers and amounts of cotton picked by each slave; account books listing slave birth dates and slave clothing allotments; a Civil War journal with details of the movements of the 52nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, April 1862 to July 1863, and Benjamin Franklin Little's personal narrative as a Federal prisoner, 1863; a Carlisle plantation weather log, 1867-1879; household inventories; tenant accounts, 1885-1886; an account book for Benjamin Franklin Little's estate; and other volumes. Also included are a few family photographs; a photograph of General James Johnston Pettigrew; Confederate Army muster rolls, 1862, for Company E, 52nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment; clippings; recipes for horse remedies; and other items.

• Oversize paper (OP-3954/1)
• Photographs (P-3954/1-8)