A Guide to the Papers of the Gilmer Family , 1781, 1820-1821, 1861-1865 #11105

Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

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Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Special Collections Department

Abstract

This bound manuscript journal, 1781, 1820-1821, and 1861-1865, includes: Legal notes, April 6, 1820 to June 28, 1821, of Francis Walker Gilmer (1790-1826) as a reporter to the Court of Appeals; "Notes on the War of 1861 to 65," reminiscences of the Civil War, by William Wirt Gilmer (1804-1879); and, "Notes on Geography Italia," began December 5, 1781, by George House. Loose items include a financial note, February 8, 1787; a form letter, April 1861, from the Literary Messenger ; and, a note, September 25, 1864, from Fitzhugh Lee, Charlottesville, Virginia, to [William Wirt Gilmer], Ivy Creek, Virginia, concerning his generosity while Lee was wounded and in Charlottesville, with an explanatory note on verso by Gilmer.

Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Gilmer Family Papers, 1781-1865, Accession #8461, 11105, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This bound volume was given to the Library by George Gilmer Craddock, Jr. of Lynchburg, Virginia, on August 17, 1993.

Scope and Content Information

The first half of the journal consists of Francis Walker Gilmer's notes on legal cases heard in the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, 1820-1821. These probably formed the basis of his published book Reports of Cases Decided in the Court of Appeals of Virginia (1821).

The second half consists chiefly of copies of diary entries from the Civil War made by William Wirt Gilmer, a farmer and soldier from Albemarle County. It includes comments on Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, William W. Averell, Fitzhugh Lee, John C. Fremont, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Jefferson, whose ideas he believed led to the war. Many comments on the state of local agriculture during the war are included.

There are 26 pages of notes on Italian geography, possibly written in 1781 by George House. With these are a form letter, 1861, Macfarland and Ferguson, Office of the Southern Liberary Messenger, Richmond, to W.W. Gilmer; and another letter, 1864 September 25, from Fitzhugh Lee thanking Gilmer for some food he had sent after Lee was wounded.