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Collection Number: 04414-z

Collection Title: John Wesley Halliburton Papers, 1861

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.

Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.

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Size 38 items
Abstract John Wesley Halliburton was born in Woodville, Tenn., in 1840. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1861. Although he opposed secession from the Union, Halliburton enlisted in the Haywood County (Tennessee) Grays, soon after he left Chapel Hill and joined an Arkansas regiment after the fall of Memphis in 1862. At one point, he was captured and imprisoned. Eventually, Halliburton and married his second cousin, Juliet Halliburton, of Little Rock, Ark.; they had two sons, Wesley and John Holloway Halliburton. The collection includes letters from John Wesley Halliburton, a senior at the University of North Carolina, to his second cousin and fiancee, Juliet Halliburton, in Little Rock, Arkansas, from January to May, 1861. Topics include the issue of secession from the Union and student life in Chapel Hill.
Creator Halliburton, John Wesley, b. 1840.
Curatorial Unit 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 John Wesley Halliburton Papers #4414-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
Microfilm copy available.
  • Reel 1: Folders 1-2
Acquisitions Information
Received from Juliet Halliburton Davis, Meadows of Dan, Virginia, in March 1985.
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: Laura K. O'Keefe, August 1985

Encoded by: Peter Hymas, September 2004

Finding aid updated by Laura Smith, March 2021

Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.

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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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Biographical information on John Wesley Halliburton is incomplete. He was born in Woodville, Tenn., in 1840. Before his graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1861, he became engaged to his second cousin, Juliet Halliburton of Little Rock, Ark.

Although he opposed secession from the Union, Halliburton enlisted in the Confederate Army with his home county regiment, the Haywood County (Tennessee) Grays, soon after he left Chapel Hill. While Halliburton was visiting Juliet in Arkansas in the spring of 1862, Memphis fell to the Union, and he was unable to rejoin the Haywood County troops. Instead, he enlisted with an Arkansas regiment, and at one point was captured and imprisoned.

Eventually, Halliburton and Juliet were married. They had two sons, Wesley and John Holloway Halliburton.

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This collection consists entirely of letters from John Wesley Halliburton to his fiancee, written during the five months before his graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1861. Although these items are best described as love letters, they also depict student life in Chapel Hill, N.C., just before the Civil War. Among his classmates, Halliburton was apparently alone in his stance against secession. On 6 March, he wrote to his future wife, Juliet Halliburton: "I verily believe I am the only union man in College....Daily am I engaged in a wordy war with some two or three...." In his letter of 22 April, he described making a pro Union speech at a secessionist rally, after which "I was taken up by some boys and rode around on their shoulders they carried me to the ladies who gave me a Boquett [sic] but it was a secession boquett and could not sail under the 'Star Spangled Banner' pinned to my heart." Juliet was also in favor of secession, and Halliburton's letters of January and February in particular contain many explanations to her of his pro-Union position.

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