Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

The materials from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin are not to be copied, quoted or cited without the permission of that institution.

Preferred Citation

Papers of the Smiley Family, Accession #1807,-a , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Smiley Family Papers were a gift to the Library from Mrs. Richard Hogshead of Staunton, Virginia, and Mr. Bowman Cutter of Waterford, Virginia, on December 13, 1943, and August 4, 1982.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of 390 items, 1750, 1772, 1778, 1827-1934, 1959, chiefly correspondence and financial and legal papers of the Smiley Family of Moffat's Creek, Augusta County, Virginia, but includes some of related families such as Hogshead, Earheart, Fulton, and other. Most of the correspondence pertains to Thomas M. Smiley, a Confederate soldier in Company D, 5th Virginia Regiment, First Division (the "Stonewall Brigade"). Topics discussed in his correspondence include: Confederate camp and civilian life; battles and campaigns such as First Bull Run, the Romney Campaign, Corinth, Yorktown, Cedar Mountain, Castleman's Ferry, and Chancellorsville; Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Turner Ashby, John Daniel Imboden, D. H. Hill, and Gustave T. Beauregard; Union atrocities; and the execution of a group of men of the 3rd Regiment, North Carolina, for desertion. Smiley was captured during the Spotsylvania Campaign of 1864 and was imprisioned at Fort Delaware, Delaware, and a few of his letters refer to his imprisionment. Post-war papers of Smiley relate to his business activities, reunions of the 5th Virginia and the 28th New York State Volunteers. There is a letter to him from Daniel Lamont, private secretary to Grover Cleveland, as well as a carte-de-visite, possibly of Smiley.

The collection contains miscellaneous correspondence including a 1772 letter from John Ralston, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to his wife; an 1853 letter of John D. Imboden; references to Libby Prison, Castle Thunder (prison), and the treatment of prisoners of war; the Hampton Roads Conference, life at the Augusta Female Institute (later Mary Baldwin College), references to the Rev. Ebenezer D. Junkin and various family matters. Much of the financial and business papers pertains to William Smiley's lands in Randolph County, West Virginia, as well as property in Virginia. Included are a sight draft for John Imboden; papers pertaining to Texas land; a ledger/copybook regarding the construction and management of the Brownsburg Academy, Rockbridge County, Virginia; 1750 map possibly of Smiley land on Moffat's Creek; and 1772 and 1833 indentures. Other items include newclippings, a notebook of Mary A. Smiley, and electrostatic copies of transcripts from William Smiley Papers in the Archives and Manuscripts department of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.