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 Raleigh Edward Colston Papers, #2574, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. Lewis D. Pilcher of Petersburg, Va., October 1941 and March 1943.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, November 2009

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.

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.

• Africa--Description and travel.
• American Confederate voluntary exiles--Egypt.
• Americans--Egypt--History--19th century.
• Colston family.
• Colston, Raleigh Edward, 1825-1896.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Diaries.
• Egypt--Armed Forces--History--19th century.
• Egypt--Politics and government--640-1882.
• Europe--Description and travel.
• Fathers and daughters--Southern States--History.
• Older people--Medical care--United States--History--19th century.
• Ragland family.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Washington (D.C.)--Social life and customs.

Raleigh Edward Colston (1825-1896) was born in France of American parents. Colston was a college professor in Virginia; Confederate brigadier general; headmaster of military schools in North Carolina; on the general staff of the Egyptian Army, 1873-1878; lecturer and author; and clerk in the United States War Department, 1883-1894. He was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va.

Colston and his wife had two daughters, Lou Colston Byrne Ragland and Mary Colston Lippitt.

The collection includes military correspondence of Raleigh Edward Colston concerning Confederate Army movements and organization in Virginia, and personal letters to his family during and after the war. The personal correspondence includes letters to his daughters, Lou (Colston) Byrne Ragland and Mary (Colston) Lippitt, containing fatherly advice; and discussions of his health, especially as he began to need nursing care.

Civil War papers include personal letters from Raleigh Edward Colston to his family, especially his daughter Lou, and official military correspondence, orders, and other papers of Colston as an officer in the Confederate Army at various locations in Virginia. Among the items are a regimental report on the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va., 1863, and a letter from Robert E. Lee to Colston regarding his removal from command of a North Carolina brigade due to his being a Virginian.

Papers, 1873-1878, are chiefly related to Colston's appointment as professor of geology at the Military College of Cairo, Egypt, and as an officer in the General Staff of the Egyptian Army. Correspondence is with family members and colleagues and discusses expeditions to Northern and Central Africa and the state of Colston's health.

Letters, 1878-1896, after Colston's return to the United States from Egypt are chiefly to his daughter Lou (Colston) Byrne Ragland and pertain to his health, daily life, and happenings around Washington, D.C. There is also correspondence related to Colton's search for employment and to his writings on Africa and the Civil War.

The earliest papers, 1842-1846, are letters from Raleigh Edward Colston's parents, Virginians living in France, concerning Colston's education at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va.

Also included is a diary (10 volumes), 1874-1896, brief and irregular, describing life in the Egyptian Army and travels in Africa and Europe, as well as life in Washington, D.C., and gradually declining health; clippings of magazine articles by Colston; and photographs including portraits of Raleigh Edward Colston and picture related to his time in Egypt.