Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

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 Davis and Walker Family Papers, #4172, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Additional Descriptive Resources

Original finding aid 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: Kathryn Michaelis, September 2010

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.

• Cape Fear River Region (N.C.)--History.
• Davis family.
• Davis, George, 1820-1896.
• Davis, Junius.
• Davis, Mary Orme Walker, 1847-1888.
• Enslaved persons' writings, American--North Carolina.
• North Carolina--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Pictorial works.
• Railroads--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Raleigh (N.C.)--Social conditions.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Louisiana.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Tennessee.
• Slave records--North Carolina.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Prisoners and prisons.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Songs and music.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--19th century.
• Walker family.
• Walker, Mary Vance Dickinson, 1821-1900.
• Walker, Platt Dickinson, 1849-1923.
• Walker, Thomas Davis, 1822-1865.
• Wilmington & Manchester Railroad Company.
• Wilmington (N.C.)--History--19th century.

• Platt Ketchum Dickinson Letters (#220)
• Confederate States of America Department of Justice, Opinions of the Attorney General (#M-1429)

The Davis and Walker families were residents of Wilmington, N.C. Prominent family members included George Davis (1820-1896), lawyer, attorney-general of the Confederacy, and well-known orator; and his son, Junius (1845-1916), who practiced law with his father and shared his interests in local and family history. Junius married Mary Orme Walker, daughter of Thomas Davis Walker (1822-1865), president of the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad during the Civil War, and Mary Vance (Dickinson) Walker (1821-1900). Also represented is Platt Dickinson Walker, son of Thomas D. Walker and Mary V. D. Walker, associate justice of the North Carolina supreme court, 1903-1923.

The Davis family series consists primarily of scattered family correspondence, 1864-1891; addresses and essays; and biographical, genealogical, and local history material relating to the Lower Cape Fear River region. Correspondence of George Davis includes three letters written from federal captivity. In addition, there are a few documents relating to his work with state-owned railroads and some political and financial items. There are three Civil War letters from Junius Davis and three copies of twentieth-century letters by him, one of which, 1916, contains reminiscences about Civil War-era songs. The bulk of the correspondence is letters to Junius from family and friends. Other items of interest include a contemporary set of caricatures of locally prominent Revolutionary War-era figures; and letters by Emily and Rebecca Evaline Polk reflecting the social conditions in south-central Tennessee and central Louisiana during Reconstruction. The Walker family series is primarily family correspondence between Thomas Davis Walker and Mary Vance (Dickinson) Walker and their family, July-December 1862 and December 1864-February 1865, while Mary was refugeeing in Raleigh, N.C., and her husband was in Wilmington. Topics include the yellow fever epidemic in 1862 and family and social life in Raleigh. Walker's letters describe his efforts to manage the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad under Union occupation. Among other family letters are several from daughter Mary Orme Walker attending the Nash-Kollock School in Hillsborough, N.C., and son Platt Dickinson Walker at James H. Horner's school in Oxford, N.C., and at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. There is also a letter, 1862, written from one family slave to another, and some Walker family slave lists.

• Photographs (PF-4172/1-3)
• Oversize papers (OPF-4172/1)
• Extra-oversize papers (XOPF-4172/1)