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Collection Number: 02206-z

Collection Title: Forrest Family Papers, 1847-1898

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 processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

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Size 30 items
Abstract MICROFILM AND PAPER: Papers of French Forrest (1796-1866), of Maryland, U.S. naval officer during the Mexican War and later an officer in the Confederate Navy; and of his son, Douglas F. Forrest (1837-1902), Confederate naval officer, lawyer in Baltimore, and Episcopal minister. There are a few loose papers in the collection. The bulk of the material is composed of account books from Clermont, the home of French Forrest at Alexandria, Va., and his order and letter books at Richmond and at the Confederate navy yard at Norfolk, Va. Also included are Douglas F. Forrest's diaries while serving in the Confederate Navy and in the West Indies, England, and France, 1863-1865, as an agent for the Confederate governsent, and a short diary and memoir, June 1865, of his start as an emigrant, via Texas, to Mexico. There are also four volumes of a diary he kept on a trip to Europe and the Holy Land, 1871, shortly after leaving the Virginia Theological Seminary, where he received his training for the Episcopal ministry.
Creator Forrest (Family : Forrest, French, 1796-1866)
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.
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 Forrest Family Papers #2206-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Lent for filming by Rutherford Fleet of Richmond, Va., in January 1940.
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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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, August 1996

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Dawne Howard Lucas, April 2021

This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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

Douglas Forrest was born in Baltimore on 17 August 1837, was graduated from Yale in 1857, and attended law school, 1858-1860, at the University of Virginia. He practiced law at Alexandria, Va., 1860-1861, before joining the Army of Northern Virginia in 1861. During the war, he took three months sick furlough at Norfolk in 1862, and was paymaster of the Naval Station at Wilmington(?) in 1862 and at Richmond, 1862-1863. He spent the later years of the war abroad. After the war, he practiced law in Baltimore and became a minister of the Gospel in 1870. He was rector in Wytheville, Va., from 1873-1875 and in Ellicott City, Md., from 1875-1879.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

Papers of French Forrest (1796-1866), of Maryland, U.S. naval officer during the Mexican War and later an officer in the Confederate Navy; and of his son, Douglas F. Forrest (1837-1902), Confederate naval officer, lawyer in Baltimore, and Episcopal minister. There are a few loose papers in the collection. The bulk of the material is composed of account books from Clermont, the home of French Forrest at Alexandria, Va., and his order and letter books at Richmond and at the Confederate navy yard at Norfolk, Va. Also included are Douglas F. Forrest's diaries while serving in the Confederate Navy and in the West Indies, England, and France, 1863-1865, as an agent for the Confederate governsent, and a short diary and memoir, June 1865, of his start as an emigrant, via Texas, to Mexico. There are also four volumes of a diary he kept on a trip to Europe and the Holy Land, 1871, shortly after leaving the Virginia Theological Seminary, where he received his training for the Episcopal ministry.

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Contents list

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Diary Selections, 1865-1871.

5 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Typed copies of certain sections of the Forrest diaries which are illegible on the microfilm.

Folder 1

Part 5: June 1865. Diary.

Folder 2

Volume 1: 20 January-27 February 1871. Diary of trip to Europe.

Folder 3

Volume 2: 28 March-21 April, 1871. Diary of trip to Europe.

Folder 4

Volume 3: 28 April-14 June 1871. Diary of trip to Europe.

Folder 5

Volume 4: 12 June-1 August 1871. Diary of trip to Europe.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Microfilm, 1847-1898.

2 reels.

The reels, originally in six pieces, have been spliced into two large reels, the divisions marking the original 6 reels. The material is not in perfect chronological order, so researchers may wish to use the following detailed list. Reel 1 pertains mainly to French Forrest, while the second reel contains papers of Douglas Forrest.

Reel M-2206/1

Part 1: 1847-1898, personal accounts and diary entries of French Forrest, partly at Clermont, 1847; "Expenses of moving from Clarksburg, W. Va., and the Rectorship of its Christ Church, to Christ Church, Coronada, Cal., for wh. I started Sept 20." 1897; miscellaneous accounts, 1897-1898; tax receipt of Capt. French Forrest, Washington Corporation, 1852; miscellaneous accounts, 1859; Clermont miscellaneous accounts, agricultural supplies, etc., 1856-1859; miscellaneous personal expenditures in a different handwriting, 1869; expenditures for "Son Douglas," 1854; insurance on Clermont and other accounts, 1853; and lists of stock in trust, some "for Richard," 1853.

Part 2: 1861-1862, three commissions, 1861, of French Forrest as Captain in the Virginia Navy, 19 April, Flag Officer in the Virginia Navy, 23 April, and Captain in the Confederate Navy, June 11; letter, 18 February 1862, to Forrest from Frank Buchanan of the Confederate States Office of Orders and Detail about Forrest's son wanting to go to Virginia; letter, 24 March 1862, from S. R. Malloy removing Flag Officer Forrest from Norfolk Navy Yard to take charge of the Office of Orders and Detail at Richmond; Confederate Document LXVIII (2), order book, April-October 1861, of Confederate States Navy Yard, Gosport, Va., signed chiefly by Forrest, Commandant, with miscellaneous lists, accounts, etc.; Confederate Document (1), office copy, October 1861-March 1862, of letterbook of Forrest, Flag Officer and Commandant at the Dock Yard, Gosport, Va.; Confederate Document LXVIII (3); and order book, December 1861-January 1864, from Commandant's office, Richmond, Va., of Forrest, Flag Officer commanding H. R. Squadron and Station.

Reel M-2206/2

Part 3: 1862-1864, list of checks in book, 28 October 1862-21 April 1863, with names, numbers, and amounts of money marked Forrest on one page, Douglas F. Forrest, Clermont, Alexandria on another; diary, 27 May 1863-April 1865, of Douglas F. Forrest, Confederate Naval Officer, who ran running the blockade at Charleston, S.C., was fired upon by Union ships in the vicinity of the West Indies, landed on Eleuthera, then traveled to Nassau, Cuba, England, France, and other places in Europe, with mention of prominent persons in the Confederacy; accounts, June 1863, of receipts for payments, apparently official accounts of the paymaster; diary, November 1863-February 1864, continued as above while Douglas Forrest was on board ship at Calais; letter, 28 May 1862, of F. Forrest to his wife; diary, February 1864-April 1864, continued of D. Forrest's with a poem, "Francis Derrick's Farewell to the Rappahannock"; diary, April-October 1864, continued of D. Forrest's; and a sketch of row buildings labeled "Seven buildings near the little market, Pennsylvania Avenue" and biographical information of Douglas Forrest.

Part 4: 1864-1875, diary, April-May 1865, of Douglas F. Forrest in London, then Liverpool before boarding the Tasmanian with Commodore Barron, Captains North, Sinclair, Pegram, Barney, and other southerners, arriving in Havana in April, traveling to Galveston where they slipped by a Union fleet in May, and staying in Texas; some accounts; notes on Forrest after the war; personal accounts, 1873; diary of D. Forrest, October 1864-December 1864, covering Forrest's stay in Europe; and diary, February-April 1865, of Forrest.

Part 5: 1 June-13 June 1865, notes, either by French Forrest but more likely Douglas F. Forrest, discussing plans to go into Mexico with General Walker and others, though the names of these others is not clearly stated, and then deciding, after an illness in San Antonio, to return to Virginia and describes his journey through Texas, meeting former friends, Union soldiers, and freed slaves, whose plight he relates in detail.

Part 6: January-August 1871, four volumes of a trip to Europe and the Holy Land by Douglas F. Forrest giving numerous details of the journey and the places visited.

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