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No restrictions. Open for research.

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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 Robert Lowrey Letters #5183-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum of Watchung, N.J., in October 2004 (Acc. 99921).

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: Nathalie Wheaton, November 2004

Encoded by: Nathalie Wheaton, November 2004

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.

• Camp Holmes.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Camp Guards. Mallett's Battalion.
• Desertion, Military--North Carolina.
• Famlies--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Forsyth County (N.C.)--History.
• Forsyth County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Kinston (N.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Lowrey, John Robert, fl. 1861-1864.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Raleigh (N.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1864.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.

John Robert Lowrey was from Forsyth County, N.C., and in school in Ledge Garden, N.C., before being conscripted into the Confederate Army in 1862. Lowrey served as a camp guard in Company E, Mallett's Battalion, North Carolina Camp Guards. He was mostly stationed at Camp Holmes near Raleigh, N.C.

Letters are mostly from John Robert Lowrey of Forsyth County, N.C., to his mother while Lowrey served as a camp guard at Camp Holmes near Raleigh, N.C., with the Mallett's Battalion, North Carolina Camp Guards during the Civil War. Lowrey's letters mention one battle in December 1862 in Kinston, N.C., and his participation in an unsuccessful search for army deserters in 1863. Many of his letters include inquiries about home and the family farm, and comments on his attempts to acquire a furlough, his feelings about the abolition of slavery, his hopes for the Confederacy, second-hand news about the war, military life (including food, clothing, and illnesses), the weather, and other soldiers. There are also a few letters written before Lowrey joined the army, one letter from Lowrey to a brother, and a few letters written by Lowrey's fellow soldiers Daniel A. Pegram and N.R. Morgan to Lowrey's mother when he was ill. Letters end in May 1864, when the camp was disbanded and soldiers from Mallett's Battalion sent to join other regiments.