Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

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 John Bramblett Beall Letters #4999-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed 2005-2006) available.

• Reel 1: Entire collection

Alternate Form of Material

There are typed transcripts for two of the letters.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the McGowan Book Company of Chapel Hill, N.C., in October 1999 (Acc. 98487).

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: John Foster, November 2000

Encoded by: John Foster, November 2000

Revisions: Finding aid updated in April 2005 by Nancy Kaiser

Updated by: Laura Hart, June 2021

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the microfilming of this collection.

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.

• Beall, John Bramblett, 1833-1917.
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Recruiting, enlistment, etc.
• Confederate States of America. Army. Georgia Infantry Regiment, 19th.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• South Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

John Bramblett Beall (1833-1917) was born in Carroll County, Ga. He joined the United States Army in 1855 and spent five years serving on the frontier with the 1st Cavalry. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he raised a company that was mustered into the 19th Georgia Infantry Regiment. He served in the Virginia campaigns in 1861 and was wounded in the hip at Mechanicsville in 1862. During his recovery, he was assigned to administrative duties as a conscription officer at Manning, S.C., and as a tax collector in Carroll County, Ga. In 1864, he was elected major of a battalion of cavalry raised in Carroll and Heard counties. He served with this unit until it was indefinitely furloughed at Altamaha Bridge. In the years following the war, he served as a judge and edited several newspapers in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.

The papers of John Bramblett Beall consist of twelve letters, 1860-1865, addressed to his cousin (later his wife), Mary J. Merrill. The letters discuss various aspects of military life during Beall's service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, including his time with the 19th Georgia Infantry Regiment in Virginia and later as a conscription officer in Manning, S.C. Included are second-hand reports of military events, such as Shiloh and Jackson's victory at Winchester, Va., and a discussion of morale among Confederate troops and civilians when Beall was recruiting. The letters refer to aspects of everyday life on the home front in the Confederacy, including the price of food and lodgings in South Carolina. Also included are typed transcripts of two of the letters, the provenance of which is uncertain.

• Microfilm reel (M-4999/1)