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Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.
Size | 38 items |
Abstract | John Wesley Halliburton was born in Woodville, Tenn., in 1840. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1861. Although he opposed secession from the Union, Halliburton enlisted in the Haywood County (Tennessee) Grays, soon after he left Chapel Hill and joined an Arkansas regiment after the fall of Memphis in 1862. At one point, he was captured and imprisoned. Eventually, Halliburton and married his second cousin, Juliet Halliburton, of Little Rock, Ark.; they had two sons, Wesley and John Holloway Halliburton. The collection includes letters from John Wesley Halliburton, a senior at the University of North Carolina, to his second cousin and fiancee, Juliet Halliburton, in Little Rock, Arkansas, from January to May, 1861. Topics include the issue of secession from the Union and student life in Chapel Hill. |
Creator | Halliburton, John Wesley, b. 1840. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English |
Processed by: Laura K. O'Keefe, August 1985
Encoded by: Peter Hymas, September 2004
Finding aid updated by Laura Smith, March 2021
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.
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.
Biographical information on John Wesley Halliburton is incomplete. He was born in Woodville, Tenn., in 1840. Before his graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1861, he became engaged to his second cousin, Juliet Halliburton of Little Rock, Ark.
Although he opposed secession from the Union, Halliburton enlisted in the Confederate Army with his home county regiment, the Haywood County (Tennessee) Grays, soon after he left Chapel Hill. While Halliburton was visiting Juliet in Arkansas in the spring of 1862, Memphis fell to the Union, and he was unable to rejoin the Haywood County troops. Instead, he enlisted with an Arkansas regiment, and at one point was captured and imprisoned.
Eventually, Halliburton and Juliet were married. They had two sons, Wesley and John Holloway Halliburton.
Back to TopThis collection consists entirely of letters from John Wesley Halliburton to his fiancee, written during the five months before his graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1861. Although these items are best described as love letters, they also depict student life in Chapel Hill, N.C., just before the Civil War. Among his classmates, Halliburton was apparently alone in his stance against secession. On 6 March, he wrote to his future wife, Juliet Halliburton: "I verily believe I am the only union man in College....Daily am I engaged in a wordy war with some two or three...." In his letter of 22 April, he described making a pro Union speech at a secessionist rally, after which "I was taken up by some boys and rode around on their shoulders they carried me to the ladies who gave me a Boquett [sic] but it was a secession boquett and could not sail under the 'Star Spangled Banner' pinned to my heart." Juliet was also in favor of secession, and Halliburton's letters of January and February in particular contain many explanations to her of his pro-Union position.
Back to TopFolder 1 |
January 1861-February 1861 |
Folder 2 |
March 1861-May 1861
Digital version: Letter from John W. Halliburton to Juliet Halliburton, 6 March [1861] |
Reel 1 |
MicrofilmMicrofilm copies of folders 1-2. |