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Preferred Citation
Preferred citation: [Identification of item], David Flavel Jamison Papers, WLU Coll. 0056, Special Collections, Leyburn Library,
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA.
In some cases the citation format may vary. Please contact Special Collections staff to verify the appropriate format.
This collection includes correspondence while Jamison was Secretary of War of South Carolina, 1861; scattered letters and
papers pertaining to the South Carolina Secession Convention of which he was president, and papers related to his tenure as
presiding judge of the military court of Gen. Beauregard's Corps, 1862-1864. Robert Woodward Barnwell and Lawrence Massillon
Keitt are among the correspondents.
Folder two contains letters and documents from 1860 including reports from officers stationed in forts in and around Charleston
harbor (SC). The primary subjects of correspondence include military preparedness, general defenses, and vulnerabilities of
the various forts. Some documents show early Confederate preparations for attacking Fort Sumter, which at that point remained
in possession of the United States. This folder also includes applications for the South Carolina state militia from veterans
of the Mexican War (1846-1848); an important letter from Robert W. Barnwell who was a United States and Confederate senator
from South Carolina; a recommendation for two Citadel cadets; and details of a donation of books to the library of the military
school.
Manuscripts box: 1 folder: 3
Correspondence
1861-01-01-1861-01-31
Scope and Contents
Folder three contains correspondence from January 1861. The primary correspondence is to and from Jamison and include military
application letters and reports on surveys, maintenance, and activity taking place within the forts of Charleston harbor.
Some of these letters contain Confederate plans for attacking Fort Sumter, two of which propose poisoning the water and attacking
directly by fortified raft. A highlight is a letter from Senator Henry M. Rice of Minnesota to South Carolina senator James
Chestnut on South Carolina's secession and Rice's opposition to war. Another curious letter included in this folder explores
the unique story of a civilian Irish laborer, Patrick Quinn, who was employed and living within Fort Sumter before its bombardment
and his brother Thomas who was a member of the South Carolina militia and seeking to have his brother leave the fort.
Manuscripts box: 1 folder: 4
Correspondence
1861-02-01-1861-02-28
Scope and Contents
Folder four contains documents and letters from February 1861 as Confederate South Carolinians prepared for an attack on Fort
Sumter. The folder includes a letter from General Arthur Manigault South Carolina's Ordnance Bureau urging that supplies be
sent to the forts in Charleston harbor. Also included are numerous military reports related to the pending attack on Fort
Sumter, placement of military regiments, and construction of forts and batteries. Other interesting contents from this folder
include an application letter for South Carolina Confederate service from Columbus daVega, a Crimean war veteran; two letters
pertaining to an enslaved man, Arthur or Thomas Lynch [also see folders three and five]; a letter from Laurence Keitt to David
Flavel Jamison announcing the formation of the Confederate government.
Manuscripts box: 1 folder: 5
Correspondence
1861-03-01-1861-03-31English.
Scope and Contents
Folder five contains documents and correspondence from March 1861. Included is another letter concerning an enslaved man,
Arthur or Thomas Lynch [see folders three and four]; a detailed letter to South Carolina's governor Francis Pickens from Lucius
Quinton Washington, a distant relative of George Washington, from Washington DC on the national political situation in the
wake of President Abraham Lincoln's inaugural speech and including strategy and intelligence on Fort Sumter and Pensacola
harbor (FL); a letter from Ellison Capers to D. F. Jamison on military arms; and Jamison's report from South Carolina's war
department to Governor Pickens.
Manuscripts box: 1 folder: 6
Correspondence
1861-04-02-1861-12
Scope and Contents
Folder six contains documents and correspondence from April to December of 1861. Included in this folder are reports of the
Provisional Army of the Confederate States after the attack on Fort Sumter assessing the fort's damage and detailing the evacuation
of the United States soldiers stationed there during the siege. Other important documents include a contract for enlisted
members of a South Carolina militia company of German immigrants; David F. Jamison's letter of resignation as South Carolina
secretary of war, a South Carolina militia application for Mexican War veteran Jacob Valentine signed by fellow Mexican War
veterans; and a diagram for attacking Fort Sumter submitted by an unknown northerner sympathetic to the Confederate cause
Mixed Materials box: 1 folder: 7
South Carolina state ordinances and related correspondence
1862-01-06-1862-12-27
Scope and Contents
Folder seven contains David F. Jamison's personal copies of government ordinances enacted during his time as Confederate provost
marshal and letters from Jamison's tenure as head of South Carolina's secession convention.
Manuscripts box: 1 folder: 8
South Carolina military court correspondence
1863
Scope and Contents
Folder eight contains documents concerning the Confederate military court of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in 1863
and includes court cases on soldier desertions some with David F. Jamison's commentary. Included is an interesting petition
for the discharge of South Carolina Confederate soldier William Fender, a shoemaker, requesting his return to his home in
Barnwell, South Carolina for its desperate lack of shoes.
Manuscripts box: 1 folder: 9
South Carolina military court cases
1863-1864
Scope and Contents
Folder nine contains documents concerning the Confederate military court of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in 1864 including
a multipage fragment of a running list of military courts martial cases listing defendant's names, charges, specific details
of the charge, and witnesses. There are two letters by Jamison concerning court martial procedure. Also included are brief
essays presumably in Jamison's hand, titled "The Origins of Artillery", "New trial", and "The Military Courts of the Confederate
States."
Manuscripts box: 1 folder: 10
Letters
No Date, fragments
Scope and Contents
Folder ten contains miscellaneous four undated items or fragments of papers. Included is a narrative description of a floating
structure for the defense of Charleston Harbor, a resolution for filling vacancies in the South Carolina or Confederate provisional
congress; a proclamation giving the governor power to commission officers of coastal military companies; a letter from Thomas
J. Glover asking for the Edisto rifles to be part of the infantry; and a letter fragment concerning political allegiances
within the Confederate congress specifically mentioning Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin, and various
representatives and/or Senators.