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Preferred Citation

J.T. Champneys Papers, Accession #992 , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The J.T. Champneys letterbook and associated materials were purchased from Edward Morrill & Son of Boston, Massachusetts, November, 1940.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of eight items, 1861-1863: a letterbook containing copies of daily reports by Captain J.T. Champneys concerning his supervision of defenses at Fort Sumter during the siege of Charleston, South Carolina (1862-1863), six miscellaneous letters chiefly regarding his work as an Confederate ordnance officer, and an undated newspaper clipping.

Champneys was a member of the staff of General Leonidas Polk (1806-1864) and received an appointment as ordnance officer on November 7, 1861. Promoted to the rank of captain in the Engineering Corps on February 15, 1862, Champneys apparently obtained the rank of major during his service in Department No. 2 (comprising the Mississippi Valley and parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana). At one point he was in command of an ordnance depot at Okolona, Mississippi, and subsequently was chief of ordnance, April 6-7, 1862 until ordered to Charleston on October 23, 1862. During his tenure at Fort Sumter (April 1862 through October 1863) he held the rank of captain of engineers until he was relieved of ordnance duty on April 23, 1863, though he was apparently stationed there for some time afterwards. According to one source Champneys was a resident of Apopka, Florida, in 1895 and possibly a vice- president on the Board of Trustees of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly, a Christian community adn summer resort in Monteagle, Tennessee.

The Letterbook (April 1862-October 1863): This bound volume has 140 numbered pages, some of which are damaged, missing, or blank: 21-22, 33-34, 36-37, 48-49, and 51-68. Page 69-70 is detached from the volume and has been filed with the material in section B.

Pages 2 to 32 contain Champneys' accounts of "commutations" (replacements) of clothing (shoes, shirts, drawers, caps, socks, pants, unifrom jackets, blankets, etc.), various goods and payrolls for a South Carolina (?) regiment's companies A through K. Supplies for a band and Fort Sumter's hospital are also indicated. Individuals alluded to are Captain Motte A. Pringle, quartermaster; Lieutenant J.R. Macbeth; and a Private Johna Johnson of Company D.

Champneys' ca. eighty-five morning reports and related letters appear between pages 38 and 140; a few are not in the proper chronological sequence and are continued in the latter part of the volume; other have more than one entry for specific days. He describes construction, repairs, the results of Union bombardments, the use of slave labor, and similar occurrences. Most (fifty-eight) were addressed to his superior, Major William H.Echols, chief engineer of South Carolina's Engineering Bureau during the siege. In late October 1863 a few of these reports were signed by Champneys on behalf of C.J. Tennent, assistant engineer. Comparable reports and communications were addressed to Colonel David. B. Harris (1814-1864), chief engineer of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; Major Stephen Elliot (1830-1866), commander of the engineer's office at Fort Sumter and later a Confederate general; Major Motte A. Pringle; Thomas Bennett, assistant superintendent of slave labor; Lieutenant John C. Riley, acting assistant quartermaster; and Captain William Nance, assistant quartermaster.

Several of the fort's employees, soldiers, and staff are named throughout the reports: Nicholas Devereaux, assistant superintendent of slave labor; LePaye, foreman of carpenters; Gadbury Moll and James [?]oyhtery, carpenters; [?] Robinson, [?] Smith, [?] Wheeler, and W.B. Natcher, slave overseers; Joseph Baker, Engineering Department; and, Dr. Bennett, fort surgeon. Confederate officers, especially generals, are mentioned as visitors or inspectors: Pierre G.T. Beauregard (1818-1893); Gabriel J. Rains (1817-1898); Rosewell Sabine Ripley (1823-1887); Jeremy Francis Gilmer (18181-1883); Lieutenants Edwin A. Ford, John T. Elmore, John Johnson (1829-1907), [?] Veal (at Sullivan's Island), and J.B. Lanneau (Company B, 25th South Carolina Infantry); Major Julius A. Blake (27th South Carolina); Captains [?] Gooding (27th South Carolina); Peter C. Gaillard (1st South Carolina Artillery), and [?] Eason; Privates John H. Houston and Bennett L. [?](25th South Carolina Infantry); also cited are Fraser Matthews and a Mrs. Martha Hemphill of York District.

There are numerous references to slaves and slave labor (September 23 & 24, October 1, 10, & 28, 1863). One slave is mentioned as the victim of Union shelling (September 29); the duties of blacks are summarized by Champneys (October 8) who reports an outbreak of typhoid fever among them (October 22). The firms of Robertson & White and WIlliam & C[?] were the fort's suppliers of slaves.

Various naval vessels, fortifications, and military units are discussed or indicated: U.S.S. New Ironsides; C.S.S. David (October 5); C.S.S. Charleston (October 22 & 23); the Confederate steamer Randolph (October 25); Forts Moultrie and Johnson; Batteries Morgan, Gregg, Haskell, Simkins, and Bee; James Island and Sullivan's Island; Mount Pleasant; the Charleston [Infantry] Battalion [25th South Carolina Infantry];the Eutaw Regiment [25th South Carolina]; the Charleston Light Infantry [25th South Carolina]; the 27th South Carolina Infantry; the 1st South Carolina Artillery; and , Company B of the Washington Light Artillery.

Champneys recounts a salute held in honor of a Confederate victory [the battle of Chicamauga] on September 24 and of a failed Union assault [September 9] against Sumter (September 28). Of special interest are: a letter from Champneys to Dr. William Nixon of Paulding, Jasper County, Mississippi, in which he requests that Nixon keep an eye on his plntation (October 16); orders for the arrest of certain employees who were absent without leave (October 5); shortages of overseers for blacks (October 10); the arrival of 880 bags of sand (October 18); and, a description of a massive Union bombardment that almost destroyed the fort--679 shells were fired at it (October 28).

The Letters (1861, 1862 & 1863): There are six in number plus an unrelated newspaper clipping. In the first letter, January 19, 1861, W.A. Ramsey of Memphis, Tennessee, informs "Champ" that he has completed work on the Mississippi River Railway; although he remains a Union man Ramsey refers to Mississippi as a "republic" and asks Champneys' opinion of orders by Governor John J. Pettus (1813-1867) that all ships at Vicksburg be stopped and searched.

A copy of General Order 24, April 16, 1862, from Confederate Adjutant and Inspector General Samuel Cooper (1789-1876) outlines procudures for the appointment and duties of ordnance officers. On October 23, 1862, Champneys, writing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a major and ordnance officer of artillery in Department No. 2, informs General Benjamin Hardin Helm (1830-1863) of his decision to withdraw charges of disobedience and terminate the confinement of Private John Day of the Ordnance Department.

[J.H.?] Reid, of the ordnance office at Enterprise, Mississippi, reports the return of certain soldiers to their units in his letter of January 15, 1863. Colonel Clark, Sergeant Murray, Lieutenant Thoebalds(?), [?] Shacklock, and [?] Cady are briefly noted. Reid observes that Champneys' horse, which had run off, has returned minus its saddle and bridle. In a letter of January 26, 1863, Thomas M. Bartlett of Chattanooga speaks of Major Wicks, Colonel Richmond, Dr. Blackburn, and generals [Lucius Eugene] Polk (1823-1877) and Braxton Bragg (1817-1876); Governor Oliver Perry Morton (1823-1877) of Indiana and Abraham Lincoln (1809- 1865) are referred to as Bartlett discusses attempts by Democrats and Republicans to dominate Indiana's senatorial election.

The remaining letter in this group is dated June 14, 1863 and is addressed to Champneys from a Mrs. S.L. of "Forest Home, "Desoto County, Mississippi. She describes a trip through Mississippi locales such as Grenada, Belmont, Jackson, Memphis, Vicksburg, and the Tallahatchie River to visit a relative. Also mentioned is her nephew, Edmund Eason, and a Lieutenant Chapman; the burning of Hernando, Mississippi, and the Yankee depredations [May 1863]; the death of a cousin at Grand Gulf [May 3rd, 1863?]; the oath of allegiance; and her possession of "a bottle of good whiskey and peach brandy (not purchased from the Yankees), "as an inducement for visits by "gentlemen friends. "

Mrs. S.L. continues her letter on June 16 with news of the nomination of Clement L. Vallandigham (1820-1871) for governor of Ohio and her hopes that Lincoln "will refuse to give him up and thereby create greater fuss among the Democrats and Republicans and let it all end in a war among Thereselves. "She urges Mr. and Mrs. Champneys to visit her.

Page 69-70, September 23, 1863, is from the letterbook and has been filed among these letters for its preservation.

The final item of the collection is an undated and unidentified South Carolinian newspaper article, "Evacauation of St. Simon's Island, "on the faithfulness of a slave named Henry and of Captian Hazzard's Rangers during the fighting and occupation of this Georgia island.

Additional identification and select information for many of the aforementioned individuals and events associated with the fort and the siege of Charleston may be found in Warren Ripley's Siege Train: The Journal of a Confederate Artilleryman in the Defense of Charleston, (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1986), and Joseph H. Crute, Jr.'s Units Of The Confederate States Army (Midlothian, Virginia: Derwent Books, 1987). Supplementary sources on the siege itself include John Johnson's The Defense of Charleston Harbor..., 1890; E.Milby Burton's The Siege of Charleston 1861-1865, 1970; and Nora M. Davis's Military and Naval Operations in South Carolina, 1860-1865..., 1959. These studies are available in Alderman Library.