Bryan Grimes (1828-1880) was a cottonplanter of Pitt County, N.C., and a Confederate Army officer. The collection consists of personal and familycorrespondence and business papers, including correspondence, 1844-1849, while heattended the University of North Carolina; almost daily letters, 1863-1865, to hiswife, Charlotte Emily Bryan Grimes (1840-1920), while he commanded Confederatetroops in Virginia; business correspondence and accounts with commission merchantsconcerning cotton sales; early 20th-century correspondence of two of his sons, JohnBryan Grimes (1868-1923), state official in Raleigh, N.C., and Alston Grimes, at thefamily home, concerning business, politics, personal, and plantation affairs;genealogical correspondence and papers, 1894-1913, of Alston; and copies of olderfamily letters and documents. Some correspondence relates to the lives of AfricanAmericans before and after the Civil War. There are also receipts and legaldocuments of Allen Grist, some of which document the sale of slaves. Volumes areplantation accounts, 1868-1919, including accounts with work hands and tenants;blacksmith and merchandise accounts; toll bridge accounts at Washington, N.C.,1872-1874 and 1884; student notebooks; family records and data; miscellaneousaccount books; notes, correspondence, and essays memorializing the Civil War,especially the Battle of Gettysburg; and reminiscences of Charlotte Emily BryanGrimes, including a record of her time spent in camp with her husband and the Armyof Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Other papers include speeches, newspaperclippings, and other materials related to family history, North Carolina history andgovernment, the North Carolina state seal, and memorialization of the Civil War.Also included are the constitution of the Farmers Interstate Protective Associationand a four-page account, author unknown, of the history of the Ku Klux Klan'sinvolvement in lynchings in North Carolina.
