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Collection Number: 00143

Collection Title: David Miller Carter Papers, 1713-1916

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 3.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 3800 items)
Abstract David Miller Carter was a lawyer and landowner of eastern North Carolina; Confederate colonel and military judge; legislator, 1862-1865; resident of Washington, N.C., until he moved to Raleigh in 1874. The collection includes papers relating to land ownership and legal business mixed, after 1849, with family and personal correspondence and letters from political leaders of both parties. Civil War items relate to Carter's activities as military judge and other matters. Scattered papers deal with the Bank of Washington, the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal Company, the sale of slaves to Carter, and a wide variety of affairs in North Carolina. Correspondence of Carter's wife, Harriett Armistead Ryan Benbury Carter (1833-1877), is also included. Later papers are those of Carter's daughters, Sarah Lindsay Carter and Laura Armistead Carter (died 1935).
Creator Carter, David Miller, 1830-1879.
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 David Miller Carter Papers, #143, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received prior to 1940. Additional material received from Mrs. Laura Schaeffer Schnorrenberg of Asheville, N.C., May 1964; and transferred from the Schnorrenberg Family Papers, #4002, January 1977.
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: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, December 2009; Nancy Kaiser, October 2020

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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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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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

David Miller Carter (1830-1879) was a lawyer and landowner of eastern North Carolina; a Confederate colonel and military judge; a legislator, 1862-1865; and a resident of Washington, N.C., until he moved to Raleigh in 1874. Carter was the son of David Carter and Sarah Lindsay Spencer Carter of Hyde County, N.C. He was educated at the University of North Carolina, graduating in 1851. He practiced law in Washington, N.C., as the partner of Richard Spaight Donnell prior to the Civil War and after the war as the partner of Edward Jenner Warren.

Carter served in the Civil War as captain, later lieutenant colonel, in the 4th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. In June 1863 he was appointed provost marshal of the 2nd Corps, commanded by Richard S. Ewell, serving also as judge of the military court attached to that corps, and in July 1863 he was commissioned a colonel in the cavalry and assigned to serve as the presiding judge of the military court attached to the 3rd Corps, commanded by A. P. Hill. He resigned in August 1864 on the grounds of his membership in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Carter served as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from Beaufort County in the legislatures of 1862-1863 and 1864-1865. He did not hold political office thereafter but for several years was interested in politics and corresponded with political leaders. In the years 1865-1867 his correspondents were chiefly Republicans, with whom he was evidently in sympathy, but he opposed Radical Reconstruction and the calling of the North Carolina constitutional convention of 1868 and broke with Republicans in late 1867. His political correspondence thereafter was chiefly with Democrats and Liberal Republicans. In 1872 he ran for United States Congress against the Republican incumbent, Clinton L. Cobb, of Pasquotank County, who won. Carter's active participation in politics seems to have ceased after this campaign.

Carter's first wife was Isabella Perry, daughter of David B. Perry of Rosedale, near Washington, N.C. She died in mid-1866 and in May 1869 he married Harriet Armistead Ryan Benbury, widow of John A. Benbury of Albania, N.C. She was the daughter of Emily Baker Turner and Joseph Jordan Ryan and the step-daughter of David Outlaw and grew up in the Outlaw home in Windsor, N.C.

Carter and his wife Isabella had three children, Sarah Lindsay, David Miller Junior, and one who died as an infant. The Benburys had a daughter Emily and an infant boy who died. Carter and Harriet had three daughters, Harriet, who died as an infant; Laura Lindsay; and Frances Spencer. Emily Benbury married Dr. Hubert Haywood and lived in Raleigh. David M. Carter Junior married Ella Mann and lived in Hyde County and later in Washington, N.C. Sarah L. Carter married Theodore F. Davidson of Asheville, N.C., in December 1893. Frances Spencer Carter married Martin Wilhelm Schaeffer of Dresden, Germany, in 1899.

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The collection is chiefly personal correspondence and other items related to David Miller Carter's legal practice, financial and business interests, land holdings, and military service. There are also papers and correspondence of Carter's wife, Harriett Armistead Ryan Benbury Carter, and his daughters, Sarah Lindsay Carter and Laura Armistead Carter. Antebellum papers are related to ownership of land and property including enslaved persons. Civil War items relate to Carter's activities as military judge and other matters. After the war, many of the items relate to North Carolina and national politics, including Carter's relationship with both the Republican and Democratic parties and his unsuccessful 1878 congressional bid. Scattered papers deal with the Bank of Washington, the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal Company, and a wide variety of affairs in North Carolina.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse David Miller Carter Papers, 1713-1916 and undated.

Folder 1a

Original finding aid

Folder 1

1713-1789

Folder 2

1790-1799

Folder 3

1800-1815

Folder 4

1816-1829

Folder 5

1830-1836

Folder 6

1840-1849

Folder 7

1850-1852

Folder 8

1853

Folder 9

1854

Folder 10

1855

Folder 11

1856

Folder 12

1857

Folder 13

1858

Folder 14

1859

Folder 15

1860

Folder 16-17

Folder 16

Folder 17

1861

Folder 18

1862

Folder 19

1863

Folder 20-21

Folder 20

Folder 21

1864

Folder 22

1865

Folder 23-26

Folder 23

Folder 24

Folder 25

Folder 26

1866

Folder 27-32

Folder 27

Folder 28

Folder 29

Folder 30

Folder 31

Folder 32

1867

Folder 33-38

Folder 33

Folder 34

Folder 35

Folder 36

Folder 37

Folder 38

1868

Folder 39-45

Folder 39

Folder 40

Folder 41

Folder 42

Folder 43

Folder 44

Folder 45

1869

Folder 46-52

Folder 46

Folder 47

Folder 48

Folder 49

Folder 50

Folder 51

Folder 52

1870

Folder 53-63

Folder 53

Folder 54

Folder 55

Folder 56

Folder 57

Folder 58

Folder 59

Folder 60

Folder 61

Folder 62

Folder 63

1871

Folder 64-74

Folder 64

Folder 65

Folder 66

Folder 67

Folder 68

Folder 69

Folder 70

Folder 71

Folder 72

Folder 73

Folder 74

1872

Folder 75-84

Folder 75

Folder 76

Folder 77

Folder 78

Folder 79

Folder 80

Folder 81

Folder 82

Folder 83

Folder 84

1873

Folder 85-90

Folder 85

Folder 86

Folder 87

Folder 88

Folder 89

Folder 90

1874

Folder 91-97

Folder 91

Folder 92

Folder 93

Folder 94

Folder 95

Folder 96

Folder 97

1875

Folder 98-103

Folder 98

Folder 99

Folder 100

Folder 101

Folder 102

Folder 103

1876

Folder 104-111

Folder 104

Folder 105

Folder 106

Folder 107

Folder 108

Folder 109

Folder 110

Folder 111

1877

Folder 112-117

Folder 112

Folder 113

Folder 114

Folder 115

Folder 116

Folder 117

1878

Folder 118

1879

Folder 119

1880

Folder 120

1881-1884

Folder 121

1885-1887

Folder 122

1888-1898

Folder 123

1907-1916

Folder 124-126

Folder 124

Folder 125

Folder 126

Undated

Folder 127

Essays and compositions of David Miller Carter

Folder 128

Letters to Sallie L. Carter, undated

Folder 129

Miscellaneous, undated

Folder 130-132

Folder 130

Folder 131

Folder 132

Legal papers, undated

Folder 133

Surveys, land plots, etc.

Folder 134

Printed items

Folder 135

Transcriptions, 1862-1879

Extra Oversize Paper Folder X-OPF-143/1

Oversize papers

Folder 136

Volume 1: Memorandum and account book, 1844-1856

Volume 2: Notebook, 1864-1866

Folder 137

Volume 3: Trial docket, Pitt County (N.C.) Superior Court, 1875

Image Folder PF-143/1

Photographs

Includes cartes de visite and albumen print.

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