"Confederate memoirs," volumes II and III, W.0012

Abstract: Unpublished typescript of the memoirs of twenty Confederate soldiersScope and Content Note: The collection contains the unpublished typescript of the memoirs of twenty Confederate soldiers, including: (v. II) W. R. Kendall; Colonel Carter; Colonel McElroy; W. H. Blankenship; R. B. Rhea; Newton J. Stephens; J. B. Paris; W. G. Bennett; Jessie Gilley; John P. West; J. W. Prater; and (v. III) J. W. Prater (cont.); Newton Sewell; Joshua Morbut; W. M. Campbell; Thomas Blair; James B. Street; F. R. Bankoon; John M. Patterson; A. S. Heath; and G. A. Bitian.For the most part, the memoirs are first-hand accounts of the battles these men went through, but there are a few second-hand stories, like that of Colonel Carter of the Thirteenth Mississippi in volume II. Carter was killed at Gettysburg, and while James, a former slave, could have remained in the North as a free man, he had promised his mistress that he would bring his master's body home if he should be killed. James had Carter embalmed and made the long trek back to Mississippi to deliver the body to the heartbroken widow.Biographical/Historical Note