2005.36.691: P.M.B. Young to his mother, 1865 June 10
1865; P.M.B. Young; Elizabeth Caroline Young; Charleston; South Carolina; Civil War; Robert E. Lee; Uncle John; Spartanburg; Augusta; Georgia
Pierce is writing to his mother to see how she is adjusting to the outcome of the Civil War. He names several options for her to consider if she decides to relocate. He also reminds her to remain strong and optimistic despite the defeat.
P.M.B. Young
P.M.B. Young, Bartow History Museum
Bartow History Museum
Auburn University
1865 June 10
Peter R. Thomas Jr.
Bartow History Museum
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English
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Recall LaGrange
Recall LaGrange; Festival; LaGrange Military Academy; LaGrange, Alabama; Colbert County, Alabama; Civil War; Living History; Annual
Recall LaGrange is an annual living history festival at the LaGrange College and Military Academy site. The living history recalls the days and life around LaGrange College and Military Academy, from the cadets of the academy and organization of local regiments, to life of citizens in and around LaGrange.
Thomas Hale, University of North Alabama
“LaGrange College & Military Academy” Pamphlet; “Recall LaGrange”. Digital version, Accessed on November 18, 2015, www.colbertcountytourism.org/images/Downloads/LaGrange College Brochure.pdf
http://www.lagrangehistoricsite.com/
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 30, 2015
John Daniel Rather House / Locust Hill
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; John Daniel Rather House; Locust Hill; Civil War; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey; Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
One of the oldest surviving domestic structures in Tuscumbia, the John Daniel Rather House, or Locust Hill, was built in 1823 for planter William Hooe and his wife, Catherine Winter. It was occupied briefly during the Civil War by Union troops under the command of General Florence N. Cornyn, who used the building as a headquarters. After the war, in 1865, Capt. John Taylor Rather acquired the house, and it reverted to its prior function as a residence.
Among the earliest white settlers of Alabama, Rather had twice served as deputy sheriff of Madison County before being elected as a state representative for Morgan County. His son, General John Daniel Rather, also served in the state legislature, and was, for a time, president of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The two-story Federal-style brick house remained in the Rather family until the death of the general's granddaughter, Mary Wallace Kirk, in 1978.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, John Daniel Rather House, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #82001603.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-318, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0100 (accessed November 10, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 10, 2015
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Fort Harker
Jackson County, Stevenson, Military Fortification, Civil War, National Register of Historic Places, Alabama Historical Commission Markers
Constructed by the Union Army in the summer of 1862 and expanded in 1864, using soldiers and freed slaves, Ft. Harker was built on a broad hill a quarter-mile east of town. It overlooked Crow Creek and was well within firing range of Stevenson’s strategic railroad lines, supply depots and warehouses.
Ft. Harker was an earthen redoubt, 150 feet square, with walls 14 feet high, surrounded by an 8 foot deep dry moat. It contained 7 cannon platforms, a bomb-proof powder magazine, a draw-bridge entrance and an 8-sided wooden blockhouse at its center. Soldiers building the fort reported that “the soil is very hard, requiring the continual use of a pick.” Despite that, Ft. Harker was critical to Union plans. The officer in charge was ordered by his commanding general “to work night and day” to complete the fort “as rapidly as possible.”
One other large fort, two smaller redoubts and at least seven blockhouses were constructed along the railroad lines at Stevenson during the Civil War. No major fighting occurred here, but skirmishes and sniper attacks were common as territory traded hands between Union and Confederate forces.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places 5/2/77
(From the historical marker erected at the site by the Alabama Historical Commission)
Blake Wilhelm
Historical marker erected at the site by the Alabama Historical Commission
http://focus.nps.gov/nrhp/AssetDetail?assetID=95bdb8b3-ef52-477c-851f-ae8cb34f821d
http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/nrhp/text/78000491.pdf
http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.23042/
Northeast Alabama Community College Archives and Special Collections
1862-1865
Shelby Springs Hotel & Confederate Cemetery
Shelby Springs; Mineral Springs; Hotel; Resort; Hospital; Cemetery; Civil War
Shelby Springs Resort Hotel is believed to have been built sometime around 1839 providing accomodations to tourists coming to avail themselves of the mineral waters.
<p>In about 1856 Mr. Jasper J. Norris of Selma leased the property consisting of 2,700 acres of wooded land, including the springs, hotel and cottages. During the Civil War, the facilities were used as a training center for the young Confederate soldiers. In 1862 Shelby Springs was known as Camp Winn. Several students in the University of Alabama Cadet Corps were sent there to drill troops for the Army. In 1863, the Confederate Army as a hospital and a soldier's home used the hotel and cottages. Father Leray and the Sisters of Mercy staffed the hospital after fleeing Civil War destruction in Vicksburg, Mississippi. They brought with them by train many wounded and sick Confederate soldiers.</p>
<p>The Shelby Springs Confederate Cemetery became an extension of an existing cemetery located on a ridge overlooking the springs.</p>
Copied from the Shelby County Historical Society Quarterly magazine, dated March 2002: Shelby County Reporter, Thursday, June 10, 1976 Letter to the Editor: With very much interest I read the letter in the "Reporter" about the old cemetery located near, at that time, the old Summer Resort at Shelby Springs. Fifty years ago the Nelson Realty Co. purchased the Shelby Springs and their plans were to build a big Hotel and Club House to be named the "Yamakita Club" but somehow it never materialized. Then a man named Irby procured it and from that the present owner acquired the property, Howard Hall. Since the last two owners acquired it, there were no more good times, such as picnics et cetera at Shelby Springs. People for miles around would come there especially on the 4th of July ball games et cetera, plenty of water of which there were five kinds, three artesian springs of sulphur water. It was meeting place for all the neighbors. Gone is all that now, an iron fence surrounds the old springs "lot" as it was called, but let us get back to the cemetery, it was known as the Old Soldiers Grave Yard. I personally knew of two old civil war veterans buried there, I.C. Miller and his brother William "Bill" then their sisters Miss Nancy Miller and Mrs. Marian [Mary Ann, second wife of Felix James] Seale ... John Roche Gould, 3329 Oakhill Drive, Birmingham, Alabama 35216. More about <a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alshelby/ShelbySprings.html" target="_blank">Shelby Springs Hotel</a> More about <a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alshelby/cemSSConfederate.html" target="_blank">Shelby Springs Confederate Cemetery</a> <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2187952" target="_blank">Findagrave.com listings for Shelby Springs Confederate Cemetery</a>
Liz Clayton, Shelby County Historical Society
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
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Shelby Iron Works Complex
Shelby County; Civil War; Iron Industry; Iron; Ware, Horace; blast furnace; Historic Shelby Association; industialization
<strong>Shelby Iron Works</strong> began when Horace Ware purchased land south of Columbiana, Alabama from Green B and Sarah Seale on December 29, 1842. Ware acquired other properties in the area with available timberland and hematite ore. The Shelby Iron Works Company was started with the building of a cold blast iron furnace. The lone furnace stack was built out of brick and stone and only stood 30 feet high. <sup class="reference"></sup>During The American War between the States the iron works was useful in outfitting the CSS Tennessee, CSS Huntsville and the CSS Tuscaloosa. A detachment of Union General Emory Upton's division of Wilson's Raiders attempted to destroy the ironworks on March 31, 1865. The ironworks was rebuilt and continued to operate until 1923 when production stopped. The majority of the Ironworks was dismantled for scrap in 1929. <a href="http://www.shelbyironworks.com/" target="_blank">Shelby Ironworks Website</a><sup class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Iron_Company#cite_note-3"><br /></a></sup>
Liz Clayton, Shelby County Historical Society
Alabama Cultural Resources Survey
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General James Henry Lane Home
Auburn University; Lee County, AL; East Alabama Male College; Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama; Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Social Clubs; Auburn; Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage; Civil War
The Lane House was built in 1853 at the corner of Thach and College Streets in Auburn. It was the residence of several prominent figures in the history of Auburn University. The home was leased in 1873 by Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama Treasurer E.T. Glenn. Future owner (and the home's namesake) Brigadier General James H. Lane was a revered Confederate veteran from Virginia. He rose in the ranks from Major to Brigadier General by age thirty in 1862. He was wounded three times and fought in every major battle of the Army of Northern Virginia before the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia in April 1865. It was a squad of his own men who accidentally shot Major General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.
After arriving in Auburn, Lane taught Civil Engineering, eventually becoming the Chair of the Engineering Department. General Lane purchased the home in 1884. He was also a leading figure in the establishment of the School of Engineering and the college's Corps of Cadets. The property was sold by his daughter in 1960 to Auburn University to become the site of the school's new library. To save the home, Mollie Hollifield Jones purchased it for the Auburn Women's Club, moving it to its current location at 712 Sanders Street. Added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 1991, the home continues to serve as the offices of the Auburn Women's Club.
Evan Isaac, Joshua Shiver
Image: Home: User sfwife, waymarking.com, http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=2b230b57-b2a2-4de6-b5a8-1160869852fb
Text: Lee County Heritage Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants: 2000),
Kenneth Phillips, James Henry Lane, Encyclopedia of Alabama, http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1614
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2015-12-5
Evan Isaac, Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://www.auburnheritageassoc.org/historic-markers.html#womansclub" target="_blank">Auburn Heritage Association: Historic Markers</a>
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William James Samford
Auburn, AL; Lee County, AL; Civil War; East Alabama Male College; Samford, William James; Confederate Army; Baker's Creek, Mississippi; Slaton, William F.; Johnson's Island; Lake Erie; Old Main Hall; Samford Hall
When the East Alabama Male College opened its doors in 1859, William James Samford was one of the first eighty students to enroll. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Samford enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army where he was soon promoted to Lieutenant. Serving primarily in the western theater of operations, he campaigned in Tennessee and Kentucky before he was captured at Baker's Creek, Mississippi in 1863. He then spent eighteen months in prison at the prisoner-of-war camp on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie where he met his former professor William F. Slaton.
After the war, he returned to Auburn for a year to farm and study law under his father, after which he served in both houses of the Alabama legislature and eventually in Congress where he appropriated money for the reconstruction of Old Main Hall which had burned to the ground in 1887. He became the 31st Governor of Alabama in 1900. The newly reconstructed building was named Samford Hall in his honor in 1929.
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2015" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Encyclopedia of Alabama: William J Samford</a>
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
<a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Encyclopedia of Alabama: William J Samford</a>
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John Darby
Lee County, AL; Civil War; East Alabama Male College; Darby, John; Auburn, AL
A professor of natural science and one of the original trustees of the East Alabama Male College, he also taught chemistry and developed a “Prophylactic Fluid” which was widely used as a disinfectant and antiseptic by Civil War surgeons and hospitals. A potassium permanganate solution, it was probably made in a building close to where the president’s home stands today.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
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Henry Clay Armstrong
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Armstrong, Henry Clay; East Alabama Male College; Confederate Army; Reconstruction; Alabama House of Representatives; Brazil; Auburn, AL
Henry Clay Armstrong was a student at the East Alabama Male College prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. After becoming a lawyer, he enlisted and became a captain in the Confederate Army where he served until the end of the war. During Reconstruction, he served as a state legislator, speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, state superintendent of education, and eventually the Consulate General to Brazil. He returned to the EAMC where he served on the board of trustees and the executive council.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
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William Lowndes Yancey
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Yancey, William Lowndes; Chambers County, AL; Secession; Pebble Hill
Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Yancey was a fiery orator and politician who ardently defended slavery and secession. Representing Chambers County during the Alabama secession convention, he voted for the state to leave the Union and during the war spearheaded a failed diplomatic attempt to coerce Europe into recognizing Confederate independence. The Yancey family spent many summers with the Scott family at Pebble Hill.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2064" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Encyclopedia of Alabama: William Lowndes Yancey</a>
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Auburn and Opelika at the End of the Civil War
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Auburn, AL; Opelika, AL; East Alabama Male College
The emancipation of slaves, a widespread labor shortage, and the collapse of the Confederate financial system all coalesced to bring the cities of Auburn and Opelika to ruin at the end of the Civil War. It would be ten years before a new home would be constructed in Auburn and the area’s educational system was completely wrecked. What was once a bustling and growing village would soon fall into stagnation. Though the East Alabama Male College reopened in 1866, it did so with fewer students and many unpaid professors.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://diglib.auburn.edu/150th/series/au_civil_war.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Auburn University Sesquicentennial Series: Auburn in the Civil War Era by Ralph Draughon Jr.</a><br /><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41680?msg=welcome_stranger" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Book: Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama by Walter L. Fleming<br /></a>Storey, Margaret M., <em>Loyalty and Loss: Alabama's Unionists in the Civil War and Reconstruction</em>. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
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Rousseau and Wilson's Raids
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Union Army; Rousseau, Major General Lovell Harrison; Sherman, General William T.; Decatur; Johnston, Major General Joseph; Atlanta; Confederate Army; Texas Hospital; Wilson, General James H.; Phenix City; Columbus, GA
On July 10, 1864, Major General William T. Sherman ordered Major General Lovell Harrison Rousseau to depart from Decatur, Alabama with approximately 2,500 men. Their goal was to sever the Montgomery and West Point railroads - a vital link for funneling supplies from central Alabama to Confederate Major General Joe Johnston's overwhelmed and outnumbered forces in Atlanta. Along the way, Rousseau's men were to destroy every scrap of government supplies or materials that could be used to aid the Confederate defense of Atlanta.
Local slaves in the Auburn/Opelika area funneled information to Rousseau and his men about the area's weak defenses. In Auburn, only a handful of patients at the Texas Hospital were able to offer even token resistance. As Rousseau and his cavalry rumbled through the streets of Auburn and then Opelika, they burned warehouses, burned train depots, the post office, and disabled the local rolling stocks. Union soldiers returned once again on April 15, 1865, this time under the command of Major General James H. Wilson. They swept through Auburn, Opelika, and Phenix City, before finally making their way across the 14th Street Bridge into their intended target, the massive industrial city of Columbus, Georgia.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3596" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Alabama: Rousseau's Raid</a><br /><a href="http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1375" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Alabama: Wilson's Raid</a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1864/08/03/news/gen-rousseau-s-raid-highly-interesting-particulars-expedition-departure-decatur.html" target="_blank">New York Times July 27, 1864: Gen. Rousseau's Raid</a><br /><a href="http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/civilwar/unionroutes.html" target="_blank">Routes of Union Activity in Alabama (Maps)</a>
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Old Main Hall
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn University; East Alabama Male College; Button, Stephen Decatur; Civil War; General Lovell Rousseau; Morrill Act; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College; Old Main Hall; William J. Samford Hall
After the state awarded East Alabama Male College its charter on February 7, 1856, the Board of Trustees set about securing funds to build an administrative and educational building. The trustees initially allocated $25,000 for the facility, but the building that came to be known as Old Main Hall required an expenditure of approximately $60,000 to complete. Stephen Decatur Button, a nationally prominent architect, designed and built the four-story Italianate-style academic building.
Old Main Hall was the primary building of the East Alabama Male College from 1856 until 1887. During the Civil War, EAMC suspended operations like so many of the country’s other academic institutions. As faculty, staff, and students left school to join the Confederate war effort, the EAMC shuttered its doors from 1861 to 1864 when Old Main Hall, Langdon Hall, and the Chapel were converted into makeshift hospitals for wounded soldiers arriving from Atlanta. In 1864, Texas’s state legislature paid to convert Old Main Hall into a convalescent hospital that they dubbed Texas Hospital. The ramshackle hospital housed over four hundred Confederate soldiers, many of whom never saw their homes again and were buried in nearby Pine Hill Cemetery.
Old Main also acted as a parade ground where soldiers from nearby Camp Beauregard and Camp Johnson marched and drilled during the war. In July 1864, Major General Lovell H. Rousseau and his force of approximately 2,500 Union cavalrymen raided the cities of Auburn and Opelika where they destroyed thirty-five miles of railroad tracks, the local post office, and Pebble Hill. In an effort to defend the city, sixteen-year old John Hodges Drake and approximately thirty or forty convalescents from the Texas Hospital offered some token resistance to Rousseau's raid, to little avail. The Federal cavalrymen left the bedridden and newly minted prisoners alone and did little damage to civilian property.
In fall 1866, students returned to attend classes in a building ravaged by the elements and war. In the early morning of June 24, 1887, a fire broke out in Old Main Hall’s lower basement chemistry lab. The ensuing conflagration consumed the entire building. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the students met for classes in the Chapel. In 1888, the school erected a new administration building, William J. Samford Hall, on Old Main Hall’s original foundation. Old Main Hall’s cornerstone is still visible at the base of the northeast corner of Samford Hall. Old Main Hall’s building originally occupied the space that is now 182 South College Street, Auburn University.
Taylor McGaughy, Joshua Shiver
Image Source: http://www.auburn.edu/communications_marketing/150/lecture.html
Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 9-11.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-11-21
Taylor McGaughy, Joshua Shiver
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Opelika, Alabama
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Opelika, AL; Rousseau, General Lovell Harrison; Auburn, AL
The city of Opelika, Alabama was incorporated on February 9, 1854. Because of the many rail lines that snaked through the city, warehouses were built during the war to store cotton and other goods. When General Lovell Harrison Rousseau’s men stormed through Auburn and Opelika in July 1864, they destroyed railroads and other property including Opelika’s warehouses.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
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Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Religion; African American History; Payne, Lonnie; Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church
After the end of the Civil War, newly freed African-American men and women constructed Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church on what is today known as Baptist Hill, skirting East Thach Avenue. Lonnie Payne, a white land owner, deeded the property to a member of the congregation in 1865 and it was constructed by logs from the Frazer plantation northeast of Auburn. It was the first African-American church built in the area.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
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Sunny Slope
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Auburn, AL; Samford, William F.; Historic Home; Secession
This historic home that sits on what is now South College Street was the site where the 14th and 18th Alabama regiments were mustered in 1861. William F. Samford, known as the “Penman for Secession” for his nationally published diatribes on secession, owned the home and the connecting plantation.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://www.auburnvillager.com/news/article_e4ae8d69-cb8e-5084-9de5-8687c662f201.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Auburn Villager: Remembering the "Penman for Secession"</a>
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Auburn Train Station
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Davis, Jefferson; Montgomery, AL; Confederacy; Confederate Army; East Alabama Male College; Columbus, GA; Rousseau, General Lovell Harrison; New Orleans, LA; Richmond; United Daughters of the Confederacy; Auburn, AL; Wilson, General James Harrison
In February 1861, president-elect Jefferson Davis rode a train from his plantation in Mississippi to Atlanta and then to Montgomery, Alabama for his inauguration as president of the Confederacy. On February 16, at the Auburn train depot, president-elect Davis reviewed the Auburn Guards, a company of cadets from the East Alabama Male College who were reportedly the first of the Confederate Army to be reviewed by Davis.
Because the Montgomery and West Point Railroad connected Auburn with the state capital at Montgomery and the vital industrial city of Columbus, GA, the Auburn train depot and tracks were later destroyed under Rousseau and Wilson's raids, in 1864 and 1865 respectively. It was replaced by a second station after the end of the war which was located to the west of the current (and final) depot. In 1893, the Auburn cadets formed an honor guard when former Confederate president Jefferson Davis's body was sent by train from New Orleans to Richmond. In commemoration of the former president's visit to Auburn, on March 30, 1914, the United Daughters of the Confederacy unveiled a marker near the depot that stands today.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
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Pebble Hill
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Pebble Hill; Historic Home; Scott, Nathaniel J.; Rousseau, General Lovell Harrison; Yancey, William Lowndes; Union Army; Auburn, AL
Pebble Hill was the home of Nathaniel J. Scott and his family from 1847 to 1871. When Rousseau’s men swept through Auburn in July 1864, William Lowndes Yancey’s widow resided at Pebble Hill and Union soldiers looted the building because of her presence. It was reported that Nathaniel Scott’s family had silver near a spring on the property and though Union soldiers watered their horses at this spring, the silver was never found.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://www.cla.auburn.edu/cah/pebble-hill/history-of-pebble-hill/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">History of Pebble Hill</a><br /><a href="http://www.cla.auburn.edu/cah/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities</a>
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Pine Hill Cemetery
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Cemeteries
Pine Hill Cemetery has over 1,100 graves and contains a mass grave of at least ninety-eight unidentifiable Confederate soldiers who died in the makeshift hospitals in Auburn. In 1893, the Ladies Memorial Association erected a monument over the spot believed to be the site of the mass Confederate grave. An additional seventy-one Union and Confederate soldiers are buried in marked graves through the cemetery.
The cemetery is located in Auburn at Armstrong Street and Hare Street.
Coordinates: 32.6006903, -85.4777268
Heather Scheurer, Joshua Shiver
http://alabama.hometownlocator.com
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Heather Scheurer, Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://www.auburnheritageassoc.org/historic-markers.html#pinehill" target="_blank">Auburn Heritage Association: Historic Markers</a>
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The Chapel
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Auburn, AL; Religion; Langdon Hall; Auburn Presbyterian Church; Slavery; Reese, Edwin; Old Main Hall
Founded as the Auburn Presbyterian Church in 1851, “the Chapel” was built by local slaves belonging to one of Auburn’s first residents, Edwin Reese. Like Langdon Hall and Old Main Hall, it served as a makeshift hospital from July 1864 through the end of the Civil War. It is currently the oldest building in Auburn still standing on its original site and the second oldest building overall. It is still in use today as a multi-faith chapel.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/73000351.pdf" target="_blank">Floyd D. Warner, Auburn Players Theater: National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form</a>
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Camp Beauregard and Camp Johnson
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Camp Beauregard; Camp Johnson; Confederate Army; Auburn Guards; Beauregard, AL; Auburn, AL
These two camps trained six groups of Confederate soldiers that included the local Auburn Guards as well as the 14th, 18th, 37th, and 45th Alabama infantry regiments.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
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Noble Hall
Auburn, AL; Lee County, AL; Civil War; Slavery; Antebellum South; Education; National Register of Historic Places; Auburn University; Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Luther Noble Duncan; Greek Revival Style
Wealthy planter Addison Frazer built the home in 1854 in a two-story Greek Revival style. Frazer owned over 100 slaves and grew cotton on 2,000 acres of land. He served on the board of the Auburn Masonic Female College and the East Alabama Male College. Located approximately 2.5 miles from the town center of Auburn, the property was a massive plantation that according to legend, became a makeshift hospital when Ms. Frazer took in sick and wounded soldiers. One later tale recounted that as Union soldiers reached the Addison Frazer home, Ms. Frazer gave them the Masonic sign which saved her home and her provisions from being looted.
After the collapse of cotton prices in the 1920s the home changed hands numerous times until it was bought and restored in 1932 by J.V. Brown, superintendent of buildings and grounds at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). He sold the property in 1941, to Dr. Luther Noble Duncan, president of the school, director of the Alabama Extension Service, and pioneer in the founding of the National 4-H Youth Program. The home was named in his honor by his daughter, Elizabeth Pearson. Additional structures that have been preserved are the original separate kitchen, carriage house, and smoke house. Some remains of slave quarters are found in four locations on the property.Located at 1433 Shelton Road in Auburn, Noble Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, the first site from Lee County to be added to the register.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Hall
Keith S. Hebert, Evan Isaac, Joshua Shiver
Images: Home: Rivers A. Langley, Photographer
Auburn University Library, http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/aghy/aces/aceshead/duncan.jpg
Text: Lee County Heritage Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants: 2000), 23.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Hall
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Keith S. Hebert, Evan Isaac, Joshua Shiver
Rivers A. Langley, Photographer
<a href="http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/72000163.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Janice P. Hand: National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form</a><br /><a href="http://www.auburnheritageassoc.org/historic-markers.html#noblehall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Auburn Heritage Association: Noble Hall Marker</a>
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Langdon Hall
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Auburn Masonic Female College; Langdon Hall; Auburn, AL; Civil War; Secession; Yancey, William Lowndes; Stephens, Alexander; Toombs, Robert; Brownlow, William G. "Parson"; Union Army; Langdon Hall; The Chapel; Old Main Hall; Pine Hill Cemetery; Auburn University; Langdon, Charles
Originally built as the Auburn Masonic Female College chapel in 1846, the building that became known as Langdon Hall stood on the corner of Gay and Magnolia Street near the current site of Auburn Bank. As the oldest building in Auburn, it served as the political nerve center of eastern Alabama for most of the 19th century. Boasting the largest auditorium in eastern Alabama, it was the scene of countless lectures and political debates leading up to the American Civil War. In 1860, it was the site of a major debate on secession between future Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens, future Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs, anti-secessionist William G. "Parson" Brownlow, and fiery orator and politician William Lowndes Yancey.
In July 1864, as Major General William T. Sherman's army bore down upon Atlanta, soldiers wounded in its defense were evacuated to surrounding communities. A contingent of soldiers from Texas were moved to the city of Auburn and housed in Langdon Hall, the Chapel, and Old Main Hall, which were converted into makeshift hospitals. After the war, Auburn's annual Confederate Memorial Day celebration typically began at Langdon Hall before eventually terminating at Pine Hill Cemetery. In 1883, it was moved from its original location to its present spot on Auburn University's campus where it has been used as classroom space ever since. Just six years later, it was renamed Langdon Hall after prominent Alabama politician, war veteran, and Auburn trustee Charles Langdon.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
Auburn University Libraries: <a href="http://www.lib.auburn.edu/arch/buildings/langdon_hall.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Langdon Hall</a>
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