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 Lemuel J. Hoyle Papers #4746, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed 2007) available.

• Reel 1: Entire collection

Acquisitions Information

Received from Louise Walker Darracott of Raleigh, N.C., and Hugh A. Walker Jr. of Waxhaw, N.C., in February 1995 (Acc. 95035).

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: Roslyn Holdzkom and Janna Sayle, April 1995

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, April 2005

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the encoding of this finding aid and microfilming of this collection.

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.

• Cleveland County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 11th.
• Courtship--History--19th century.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863.
• Hoyle, L. J. (Lemuel J.), 1839-1884.
• Love-letters--History--19th century.
• Methodists--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Petersburg (Va.)--History.
• Pettigrew, James Johnston, 1828-1863.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Yellow fever--North Carolina--History--19th century.

L. J. Hoyle (Lemuel J.)was a merchant and farmer of Belwood, Cleveland County, N.C. During the Civil War, he served as captain with the 11th North Carolina Infantry Regiment mainly in North Carolina and Virginia. Hoyle first married Emma R. Higgins (1849-1874) and then Mary Ella Round, with whom he had several children. He served in the North Carolina General Assembly, 1879-1880.

The collection consists chiefly of letters from L. J. Hoyle of Cleveland County, N.C., to his mother during the Civil War and to Mary Ella Round, 1874-1875. Civil War letters, 1861-1864, are chiefly from Hoyle while he served in Virginia and North Carolina with the 11th North Carolina Infantry Regiment to his mother Nancy H. V. Moorman Hoyle in Gaston County, N.C. Rich in detail, these letters document military life, troop movements, battles and skirmishes, as well as Hoyle's health and attitude as the war progressed. Included are substantive comments on the 1862 yellow fever outbreak in Wilmington, N.C., and other health issues; the battle of Gettysburg, where Hoyle found himself under the command of James Johnston Pettigrew; and 1864 battles around Petersburg, Va. Courtship letters from Hoyle in Cleveland County, N.C., to Mary Ella Round in Lenoir, N.C., begin after the death of Hoyle's first wife in 1874 and continue until November 1875, two weeks before the couple married. These chatty letters deal chiefly with daily concerns, including activities of friends and relatives, special social occasions, Methodist Church matters, and other routine affairs.