Scope and Contents Note From the Collection: In a July 8, 1864 note from R. M. Pike, by order of Brigadier General Edward Hatch, Colonel George Patterson is commanded to report for citizen train guard in Memphis. Attached to the note are two newspaper clippings related to Special Order No. 74, requiring prominent Memphis secessionists to ride trains from Memphis to LaGrange in order to curb attacks on the railroads by Confederate soldiers and guerrillas.According to the newspaper clipping reprinting the order, "forty of the...

Scope and Contents Note From the Collection: In an October 25, 1837 letter to J. W. Campbell of Jackson, Tenn., General William Conner writes of town of Ashport, for which he was a promoter. Having just returned from the town, Conner notes that "the place is really becoming to be very public. I was constantly passing waggons [sic] & horsemen from steam boats stopped whilst I was there." He also speaks of Mr. Patton who has invested in the town, saying his "prompt measures in relation to building will be not only very fortunate for...

Transcription of Document

State of Tennessee

Secretary's Office

This certified that on the twenty second day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nine James L. Armstrong of the County of Rutherford in the State aforesaid was duly commissioned one of the Justices of the peace in and for the county of Rutherford aforesaid.

Given under my hand at Knoxville this 12th day of June 1811 --

R. Houston Secretary of State

Scope and Contents Note From the Collection:

The J. G. M. Ramsey Receipt, dated December 5, 1845, payment of $4.50 by Moses Armstrong for medical services rendered on September 24, 1845.

Scope and Contents Note From the Collection: In a July 21, 1849 letter to General George W. Gordon, Edmund Dillahunter discusses a number of matters related to Middle Tennessee. He begins the letter by praising E. B. Smith of Pulaski, who has asked Gordon to write a letter of recommendation to the Secretary of War regarding Smith's desire to be made a naval agent in Memphis. Dillahunter then describes the waning of the cholera epidemic which had plagued Middle Tennessee. He notes that "the Cholera has left Middle Tennessee pretty much....

Scope and Contents Note From the Collection: In a March 5, 1856 letter, G. W. Young of Clarksville writes to his father William in Chaplin, Connecticut about farming and coal mining. Young describes an agricultural practice known by the locals as "Plant Beds & Burning" in which they burn "Brush heaps on Tobacco beds & [save] the seed for plants." After a discussion of people from home, Young also talks about coal prices in Tennessee versus those in Connecticut. He also speaks of "a Rail Road in construction from...

Scope and Contents Note From the Collection: In a June 7, 1878 letter to Governeur J. Tompkins of Duchess County, N.Y., Minnie Ramsay provides a first-hand account of the unveiling of the Andrew Johnson Monument in Greeneville. Ramsay notes that "until about ten oclock there was not a great crowd there, but the special trains came about that time from Bristol and Knoxville and they were full." She continues by describing the procession and speakers, as well as problems with the unveiling itself. Ramsay argues that the unveiling was a...

Scope and Contents Note From the Collection:

In this December 28, 1899 manuscript, William L. Walker, a private with the 10th Tennessee Cavalry, CSA, provides a list of the members of Captain Thomas S. Easley's Company G.

Walker warns that he did not join the company until August 1864 and that he is providing only the names he can recall. Walker also writes of Mrs. W. T. Cooper in Nashville who owns a diary kept by W. D. Dorris, who belonged to Col. Campbell's 10th Tennessee, Company H.