Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 James Isaac Metts Papers, #3624-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Josephine Metts (Mrs. Spotswood H.) Huntt of Raleigh, N.C., April 1963.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1.

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: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, March 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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--Wilmington Rifle Guards.
• Episcopal Church--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Graham (N.C.)--Social conditions--19th century.
• Johnson Island Prison.
• Metts, James I. (James Isaac), 1842-1921.
• New Bern (N.C.)--Social conditions.
• St. James Episcopal Church (Wilmington, N.C.)
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Prisoners and prisons.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Veterans.
• Wilmington (N.C.)--Social conditions.

James Isaac Metts (1842-1921) of Wilmington, N.C., was the son of James Engram Metts and Mary Ann Tull Metts. He attended the University of North Carolina during the school year 1860-1861, joining the Wilmington Rifle Guards in April 1861. He re-enlisted in April 1862 and served with the 3rd North Carolina Regiment in the Virginia area until he was wounded and captured in the withdrawal from Gettysburg. He was hospitalized at Baltimore, Md., and transferred to Johnson's Island, Ohio. He rejoined his company in December 1864 at Staunton, Va., and went on to Appomattox. After the war he was a merchant and produce broker in Wilmington and was active in Confederate veterans' activities. His wife, Cornelia, was the daughter of his former commander, Colonel Robert H. Cowan.

The collection is chiefly letters received by James Isaac Metts from his relatives in Wilmington, New Bern, and Graham, N.C., many of which were written to him while he was a Confederate soldier imprisoned at Johnson's Island in Ohio. Letters offer news of family and friends at home and concern Metts's health and needs in prison; they include letters from northerners willing to do what they could to relieve Metts's sufferings in prison. Postwar correspondence deals with Confederate veterans' activities; St. James Episcopal Church, Wilmington, N.C.; and other matters.