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 John L. Swain Papers, #3074-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Swain of Asheville, N.C., 1954 and 1958

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: Laura Clark Brown, December 2012

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.

• Carter, J. A., active 1887-1893.
• Clergy--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 17th.
• Counterfeits and counterfeiting--United States.
• Methodists--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.
• Swain, John L., -approximately 1880.

John L. Swain (d. circa 1880) of Buncombe County, N.C., was a Confederate army captain in Company E, 17th North Carolina Regiment. Following the American Civil War, he became a Methodist minister in western North Carolina. He married Harriet E. Carter, and they had a son, John Edward Swain, who graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1902.

The collection contains scattered letters sent or received by John L. Swain (d. circa 1880) between 1862 and 1877 and fragments of Swain's Civil War diary. The wartime letters and diary fragments refer briefly to military engagements in South Carolina, eastern North Carolina, and Virginia. In a letter dated 10 April 1865 and written at a camp near Smithfield, N.C., Swain advised Julius [?] to remain with his mother and sisters rather than join the fight because the "laws of the land now give no room for the display of patriotism."

Most post-war letters pertain to the operations of the Methodist church in North Carolina and mention camp meetings, disputes, and decisions to retain ministers. A copy of an 1871 letter addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell, from an anonymous source in Swannanoa, N.C. warns the federal government about the circulation of counterfeit currency. In March 1877, Swain's cousin William A. Jones, writing from a disabled soldiers' asylum in Montgomery County, Ohio, gave family news and described the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers where he resided. Jones's letter provides details about the home's board of managers and the board's authority over the "inmates" and their pensions. In describing the facilities, he wrote: "There is every provision here for every condition of disability...it is not home -- the charm of the female voice nor the childish prattle is not heard within its walls -- with all its comforts it is like an artificil [sic] state of existence."

Also included are a two-page listing of descendants of Joshua Swain (1789-1872) and a pocket memorandum book with entries and receipts for J.A. Carter, a relative of John L. Swain's wife Harriet E. Carter. Entries with lists of household goods and enclosed items such as receipts date from 1887 to 1893.