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Collection Number: 02636

Collection Title: Berry Benson Papers, 1845; 1865-1922.

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.


This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities; this finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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Size 4.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2200 items)
Abstract Berry Benson (1843-1923) of Hamburg, S.C., was a white Confederate army soldier in the 1st South Carolina Regiment. After the war he lived at Augusta, Ga., where he was a teacher, cotton trader, author, and inventor of a remunerative bookkeeping technique. The collection contains correspondence, writings, notes, American Civil War diary and reminiscences, and other papers of Benson relating to his early life, family history, and Civil War career. Writings include fiction; poetry; plays; humor; and commentary related to the Civil War, including Benson's experiences at the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness; his escape from Elmira Prison; manners and mores; and other subjects. Other papers relate to Benson's expertise in handwriting, codes, ciphers, mycology, and other matters. Also included are full diaries from 1880 and 1884 regarding his travels in Mexico, Cuba, and Texas.
Creator Benson, Berry, 1843-1923.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Restrictions to Use
No usage restrictions.
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 Berry Benson Papers, #2636, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Gift of Charles G. Benson in 1943, and gift of Jennie and Olive Benson in 1944.
Additional Descriptive Resources
A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.
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.
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Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton, and Jodi Berkowitz, November 2010; Nancy Kaiser, August 2023

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Titles and descriptions provided by creator of the collection are indicated with quotation marks. In August 2023, archivists reviewed the title language of folder 65 and decided not to remove the racial term because we feel it provides important historical context about the materials and who created them and facilitates the research process. We acknowledge that the term as used in this context also may cause harm and will periodically revisit our decision to include it. We recognize the complexity of this issue and welcome feedback on this decision at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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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.

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Berry Benson (1843-1923) of Hamburg, S.C., was a white Confederate army soldier and author. During the American Civil War, Benson was in the 1st South Carolina Regiment, taking part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness, and escaped from the federal prison at Elmira, N.Y., by digging a tunnel. After the war he lived at Augusta, Ga., where he was a teacher, cotton trader, author, and inventor of a remunerative bookkeeping technique. Benson's Civil War experiences were published in Berry Benson's Civil War Book: Memoirs of a Conferate Scout and Sharpshooter, edited by Susan Williams Benson (1962). The book primarily comprises Benson's diary, memoirs, letters, and the diary of his brother.

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The collection contains correspondence, writings, notes, American Civil War diary and reminiscences, and other papers of Berry Benson (1843-1923) relating to his early life, family history, and Civil War career. Writings include fiction; poetry; plays; humor; and commentary related to the Civil War, including Benson's experiences at the battles of Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness; his escape from Elmira Prison; manners and mores; and other subjects. Other papers relate to Benson's expertise in handwriting, codes, ciphers, mycology, and other matters. Also included are full diaries from 1880 and 1884 regarding his his travels in Mexico, Cuba, and Texas.

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Contents list

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence, 1845-1922 and undated.

About 600 items.

Arrangement: Chronological.

Correspondence of Berry Benson. Topics include his experiences during the American Civil War, his escape from Elmira Prison, travels, correspondence with publishing houses regarding his writings, codes and cryptograms, civic matters, and the adoption of war orphans in Europe.

Folder 1a

Original finding aid

Folder 1

1845; 1863-1877

Folder 2

1878-1883

Folder 3

1884-1893

Folder 4

1894-1895

Folder 5

1896-1898

Folder 6

1899-1900

Folder 7

1901

Folder 8

1902

Folder 9

1903-1909

Folder 10

1910-1911

Folder 11-13

Folder 11

Folder 12

Folder 13

1912

Folder 14-17

Folder 14

Folder 15

Folder 16

Folder 17

1913

Folder 18

1914

Folder 19

1915

Folder 20

1916-1917

Folder 21

1918-1919

Folder 22

1920

Folder 23

1921-1922

Folder 24

Undated

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Writings, 1880-1912 and undated.

About 1600 items.

Writings of Berry Benson, chiefly on the American Civil War, includes manuscripts, stories, remininscences, notes, clippings, diaries, and his memoir.

Folder 25

"Little Joe"

Folder 26

"The Flying Auto"

Folder 27a

"Martha" and "Who Killed General Sedgwick?"

Folder 27b

"Sergent John Derrick"

Folder 28

"How I Lifted the Colonel's Mare"

Folder 29-31

Folder 29

Folder 30

Folder 31

Miscellaneous manuscripts

Folder 32-34

Folder 32

Folder 33

Folder 34

Poems

Folder 35a-35e

Outlines, ideas, rough drafts, and fragments

Folder 36a-36c

Problems, puzzles and cyphers, codes

Folder 37-38

Folder 37

Folder 38

Clippings

Folder 39

"Escape"

Folder 40-51

Folder 40

Folder 41

Folder 42

Folder 43

Folder 44

Folder 45

Folder 46

Folder 47

Folder 48

Folder 49

Folder 50

Folder 51

Miscellaneous writings

Folder 52-56

Folder 52

Folder 53

Folder 54

Folder 55

Folder 56

Volumes 1-5

1 March-29 May 1880: Benson's travel diaries and notes on trip to Mexico, the West Indies, and Havana.

Folder 57

Volume 6

March-April 1884: Diary and memoranda on trip to Mexico and Texas.

Folder 58

Volume 7

1884-1885: Benson's record of his manuscripts submitted for publication, and whether or not they were accepted. Incomplete.

Folder 59

Volume 8

1893: Scrapbook containing clippings of Benson's series "I and My Comrade" published in ten installments in the Augusta Chronicle from 13 August-26 November 1893.

Folder 60

Volume 9

1893-1894, 1897: Notes, drawings, and other studies on poisonous mushrooms.

Folder 61a

Volume 10

1877: Benson's memoirs, handwritten. See also Transcription Volumes TV-2636/1-2

Transcription Volume TV-2636/1-2

TV-2636/1

TV-2636/2

Transcription Volumes of Berry Benson's memoirs

Folder 61b

Loose material probably from Volume 10

Folder 62

Volume 11

Annotated copy of Elmira Prison Camp, by C.W. Holmes (1912).

Folder 63-64

Folder 63

Folder 64

Volumes 12-13

Typed American Civil War reminiscences.

Folder 65

Volume 14

"Black Tom"

Folder 66-69

Folder 66

Folder 67

Folder 68

Folder 69

Volumes 15-18

Pocket notebooks with notes, poems, and other writings.

Folder 70

Volume 19

Loose material mostly related to the American Civil War, includes drawings and postcards.

Folder 71

Folder number not used

Special Format Image SF-P-2636/1

Glass negative: 1 November 1864, Provost Marshal's office pass

Special Format Image SF-P-2636/2

Glass negative: 28 October 1864, order

Special Format Image SF-P-2636/3

Glass negative: 30 October 1864, order

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