Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Recollections on the Evacuation of Petersburg, Virginia, 1865, Accession 10839, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

The Morrison Manuscript was purchased on June 1, 1989.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This is a seven page typed (carbon) manuscript of the recollections of Marie E. Morrison on "The Evacuation of Petersburg and the entrance of the Federal Army on April 3, 1865." It is dated April 3, 1902, and bears several autograph corrections. The manuscript briefly mentions some of the events surrounding the retreat of the Army of Northern Virginia as well as a description (pages 5 to 7) of the burial of Private Frank E. Coyle , 3rd Company, Washington Artillery (Battalion) of New Orleans .

Frank E. Coyle was a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana , and was employed as a clerk. On April 19, 1862, at the age of nineteen, he joined the Washington Artillery in Richmond, Virginia , and was wounded in action at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Coyle continued to serve in the Confederate Army until his death in Petersburg during April, 1865.

Mrs. Morrison recalled how the body of "F. E. Cayle" was found propped up against the wall of the Second Presbyterian Church by Reverend Churchill Gibson on the morning of April 3, 1865. A placecard attached to Coyle's chest identified him and his unit, claimed he had been "killed at the front on Sunday" [April 2], and requested that he be given a proper burial. Morrison describes how this was accomplished by her husband and neighbors with a military salute provided by a company of Union soldiers who postponed their pursuit of Lee's army in order to honor the slain Confederate.

In a autograph postscript Morrison reports that the body was transferred to Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg , in the autumn of 1865 as a result of efforts by a memorial association of which she was vice-president. [She was also the author of History of Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, Va. [Petersburg, Virginia? 1901 ]; a copy of this booklet is available in the Rare Book Division of the Special Collections Department, Alderman Library.]