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 Hilliard Family Papers #05627, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received as a gift from Kathryn Hilliard Lies of Goldsboro, N.C., in September 2015 (Acc.102319). Her father, Charles A. Hilliard (1925-2013), spent his lifetime piecing together his family history from the documents in this collection and the stories that his grandfather told him. Charles A. Hilliard wrote about his ancestors in his autobiography, The Way It Was.

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: Nancy Kaiser, March 2016

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, March 2016

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.

• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 12th.
• Families--North Carolina.
• Hilliard family (Warren County, N.C.)
• Hilliard, John, 1793-1873.
• Hilliard, Thomas D. (Thomas Dandridge)
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• Spotsylvania Court House, Battle of, Va., 1864.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Warren County (N.C.)--History.

The Hilliard family owned land and property in Warren County, N.C., as of the 1850's and apparently farmed tobacco. Thomas D. Hilliard was married to Eugenia Hilliard and with her had a son, Henry Hilliard. Thomas D. Hilliard taught school at some point before the Civil War. He and his brother John Hilliard enlisted in 1862 as privates into Company C, 12th North Carolina Infantry. John Hilliard survived the war and was part of the surrender on 9 April 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Va. Thomas D. Hilliard was injured in 1862 and sent home. He worked for the quartermaster at the government stables in Clarksville, Va., but was conscripted in 1864 back into Company C, 12th North Carolina Infantry. He was killed a few months later in the battle at Spotsylvania Court House, Va.

The Hilliard Family Papers consist chiefly of family letters written during the 1860s to Eugenia Hilliard by her husband, Thomas D. Hilliard; his brother, John Hilliard; and several of her female cousins. Letters sought news of the well-being of Eugenia and Thomas D. Hilliard's young son, Henry Hilliard, and of the neighborhood, especially social visits and marriages. There are occasional references to family members teaching or attending school and to freedmen. The Hilliard brothers, privates in Company C, 12th North Carolina Infantry, wrote about their experiences in Confederate war camps in Richmond, Va., Halifax, Va., and Taylorsville, Va. Thomas D. Hilliard's letters written in 1862 when he enlisted the first time describe soldiers' shanties, personal supplies, and morale. His letters after he was sent to work for the quartermaster at the government stables in Clarksville, Va., express his internal conflict over continued separation from family due to his position, which he stayed on at to minimize the risk of being drafted again. When conscription law forced him to reenlist in 1864, he wrote about camp life; an address by Governor Zebulon Vance to the North Carolina troops on ending the war and desertion; his thoughts on war, death, and afterlife; and the battle of Spotsylvania. John Hilliard's letters are few and all are written from camp. Of particular note are a February 1863 letter about orders to shoot a substitute in the regiment and a June 1864 letter describing the circumstances of Thomas D. Hilliard's death in battle at Spotsylvania. Other materials include receipts documenting purchase of household and farm goods, tax payments, tobacco sales, and slave ownership; genealogical correspondence; a handwritten copy of Thomas Hilliard Jr.'s 1829 will; and photocopies of a family Revolutionary pension claim, Confederate military service record, and Warren County, N.C., teacher's certificate.