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 James Simons Papers #3250, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. Manning Simons of Charleston, S.C., in November 1942. Additions purchased from Schindler's Antique Shop of Charleston, S.C., in November 1956.

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: Carolyn Wallace, January 1963

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2005

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

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.

• Americans--Germany--History--19th century.
• Charleston (S.C.)--Social life and customs.
• College students--Germany--History--19th century.
• Courts-martial and courts of inquiry--South Carolina--History--19th century.
• Family--South Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Lawyers--South Carolina.
• Legislators--South Carolina.
• McCrady, Edward, 1833-1903.
• Petigru, James Louis, 1789-1863.
• Simons, James, 1813-1879.
• Simons, James, 1839-1919.
• Society of the Cincinnati--History.
• South Carolina--Social life and customs.
• South Carolina. Militia--History--19th century.

James Simons (1813-1879) of Charleston, S.C., was a lawyer, legislator, and militia general. He was speaker of the house in the South Carolina legislature when the Civil War began. During the war, he served as brigadier general of the South Carolina Militia Fourth Infantry Brigade. James Simons married Sarah L. Wragg and with her had at least two children: James Simons Jr. and Henrietta Simons.

James Simons Jr. (1839-1919) attended South Carolina College and the University of Leipzig. He returned to South Carolina in 1860 and served as a captain and later a colonel in the Confederate Army. After the war, he practiced law in Charleston with his father as Simons and Simons, and later with Rudolph Siegling and John D. Cappelmann. He served in the state legislature from 1878 to 1891, and was speaker of the House from 1882. Simons was president of the News and Courier Company for 25 years, was chair of the Board of Public School Commissioners of Charleston, and was active in the Society of the Cincinnati as president of the state society in 1898 and vice president general of the national organization in 1902. Simons married Elizabeth Potter Schott in 1890.

The collection consists chiefly of the papers of lawyer, legislator, and militia general James Simons (1813-1879) and mostly concern his activities with the South Carolina militia, 1855-1860. Correspondence and court martial proceedings relate to his controversy with Edward McCrady Jr. (1833-1903), a lawyer and historian who sought the colonelcy of a new regiment being formed in 1860 within the South Carolina Militia Fourth Infantry Brigade commanded by Simons. Other materials include letters, 1840s, from James Louis Petigru about legal matters, and two letterpress copy books, 1858-1860 and 1862-1866, relating to Simons's legal practice and militia matters.

The papers of James Simons Jr. (1839-1919) are chiefly family letters received while he was a student at Leipzig, Germany, during the 1850s. Letters discuss social and political news, such as yellow fever, national and sectional politics, the capture of the slave ship  Echo, the city of Charleston, S.C., and fatherly advice. There are miscellaneous items related to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1889-1917.