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 Oroon Alston Hanner album #4853-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Wade H. Hadley, Jr., of Siler City, N.C., December 1996 (Acc. 96187).

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: Tim Pyatt, December 1996

Updated by: Laura Hart, June 2021

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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.

• Autograph albums--Confederate States of America.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Autographs.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 26th.
• Hanner, Oroon Alston, 1842-1922.
• Johnson Island Prison.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Photographs.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Autographs.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Poetry.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Prisoners and prisons.

• Hanner correspondence is located at the Chatham County Historical Society, with selected letters published in To Bear Arms (1984) by Zeb and Martha Harrington (pp. 142-153). A roster of prisoners at Johnson Island kept by Capt. Stephen Brewer, 26th North Carolina Regiment, can be found in the Brewer and Paschal Family Papers (#4609) folder 3 (transcription only). Other Johnson Island autograph albums in the Southern Historical Collection include: William D. Chipley (#1841); L. B. Davis (#1902); William Johnston (#1633); D. M. MacDonald (#2138); and Benjamin R. Smith (#3379).

Oroon (variant spelling, Oran) Alston Hanner was born 14 July 1842 on a farm located one mile south of present day Siler City, N.C. His parents were Dr. John Gillespie and Ann Palmer (Goldston) Hanner. Prior to his 28 May 1861 enlistment in the Confederate Army, Hanner had been attending the Haywood Academy in southeastern Chatham County. Hanner, a lieutenant in Company E of the 26th North Carolina Regiment, was captured by Union forces after being wounded at Gettysburg on or about 5 July 1863 and sent to the Johnson Island Prison, Ohio, on 18 September 1863. He was paroled in March of 1865 for transfer and exchange.

After the war, Hanner served in the North Carolina Militia and was elected to the House of the North Carolina Assembly in 1872, 1874, and 1880.

While in prison, Hanner was given an album by a local women's society. He used the album to collect the signatures, addresses, and military units of approximately 155 fellow Confederate soldier inmates. In addition to the signatures, several of the soldiers wrote poems and copied prose in the album. Included are:

Poems by Maj. McKnight: "Farewell Address to Johnson Island Ohio (29 October 1864)," "So One Unites to Me," "My Love and I"; Obituary for Capt. Simon E. Hamilton, 4 February 1864; "Yes, They Miss Me at Home!" by Brig. Gen. Jeff Thompson; "Battle of Gettysburg, Pa." by Capt. Barziza; "The Imprisoned Southron."

The album ends with a letter dated 16 February 1865 by L. B. Davis written to friends as he expected to be executed the following day. An album kept by Davis including a copy of his letter (and poems by Maj. McKnight) can be found in the Southern Historical Collection (#1902).

Also included are Hanner's commission in the N.C. Militia after the war, 16 November 1866, and a photograph of Hanner in Confederate uniform.

• Image folder (PF-4853/1)