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 T. G. Popham Papers #5001-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed July 2005) available.

• Reel 1: Entire collection

Acquisitions Information

Received from Charles Apfelbaum of Watchung, N.J., in November 1999 (Acc. 98498).

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: Aletha Andrew, July 2000

Encoded by: Aletha Andrew, July 2000

Revisions: Finding aid updated in May 2005 by Nancy Kaiser.

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the 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.

• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Confederate States of America. Army. Virginia Infantry Regiment, 7th.
• Family--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Blockades.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Popham, T. G. (Thomas G.)
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Blockades.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Campaigns.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Captain T. G. Popham (b. 1842?) was a Confederate soldier from Rapphannock County, Va. Popham's family owned a cotton plantation and slaves.

From June 1863 to April 1865, Popham commanded Company B of the 7th Virginia Infantry Regiment. Popham had joined the regiment on the first day of the battle of First Manassas. Popham saw service at Williamsburg; Seven Pines; Frayser's Farm; Second Manassas; South Mountain; Antietam; Fredericksburg; at the garrison at Smithville, N.C.; near New Bern; during the North Carolina campaign; Gettysburg; in the second North Carolina campaign; Drewry's Bluff; Milford Station; Cold Harbor; on the Petersburg-Howlett Line; Dinwiddie Court House; Five Forks; and Sayler's Creek.

Popham addressed his letters to his mother, Mrs. E. A. Popham, and mentions a sister named Annie. He married a Miss Mallory (called "Cara" in his letters) from Hanover County, Va., whom he met during the War and with whom he had a son during the war. According to Popham, his wife's brother was provost marshall at Charlottesville, Va., in 1863.

The collection consists of five letters, 1863-1864 and undated, from T. G. Popham while serving in the Confederate Army with the 7th Virginia Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, to his mother, Mrs. E. A Popham; a torn piece of paper giving his mother's address at Slate Mills in Rappahannock County, Va.; and a tintype of T. G. Popham and his wife Cara, both in civilian clothes, she wearing his kepi. The letters are dated between 15 October 1863 and 11 October 1864. Popham wrote from various camps, including Taylorsville, Va.; Smithville, N.C. (now Southport); near Bermuda Hundred, Va.; and near Chester Station, Va.

In his letters, Popham expressed concern for the welfare of his family in northern Virginia and hoped there had not been much devastation of crops or stock in the Rappahhanock and Culpeper regions. Popham described the New Bern, N.C., area as pleasant, but poor. At Smithville, N.C., he noted the relative ineffectiveness of the Federal blockade of the nearly impregnable port of Smithville to prevent blockade-running Confederate ships from reaching Nassau or Bermuda. Popham discussed General Robert E. Lee and General Richard Ewell's harassment of Federal troops near Warrenton, Va., in 1863 and the Confederates' defense of Richmond, Va., opposing General Grant's advance from the Rapidan in 1864. Grant's advance had effectively cut off communications between Popham's family in Rappahannock County and himself in Beauregard's fortifications at Bermuda Hundred, just outside Petersburg, Va. Popham also discussed military life, lamenting the scarcity and inflated prices of provisions and the scarcity and value of horses in the Confederacy.

• Photograph (SF-P-5001/1)