Administrative files, 1861-1863.

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Administrative files, 1861-1863.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/145409419

This series consists of the administrative files of Governor John Gill Shorter, containing letters, correspondence, petitions, reports, legislative acts and resolutions, receipts, dispatches, telegrams, and military orders. Topics discussed include: attempts to relieve indigent families of Confederate soldiers; distribution of salt; manufacture of weapons; requests for army discharges and transfers; establishment of army hospitals; Union sympathizers within the state; issuance of licenses to distill alcohol; cultivation of food crops; impressment of slave labor; exemptions from military conscriptions; and reports on military campaigns in Va. Included in the series is a large number of letters and petitions to Shorter from persons requesting licenses to distill alcohol for medicinal purposes. The correspondence includes reports by county sheriffs of confiscation of unlicensed stills, applications for licenses, and letters of recommendation of applicants. Also included is a copy of an act and a proclamation by Shorter to prohibit the distillation of alcohol without the Governor's permission. Among the correspondents are William Lowndes Yancey, David Clopton, James Grandison Leroy Huey, Benjamin F. Porter, and Walter H. Crenshaw. Also included are numerous letters between Shorter and Confederate government officials in Richmond, Va., many of which letters discuss the establishment of military hospitals for Ala. troops in the Confederate army. An 1861 Dec. letter of Shorter to C.S.A. Sec. of War Judah P. Benjamin reports a $30,000 appropriation by the Ala. legislature for an Ala. hospital in Richmond. Present additionally is a copy of an act of the legislature approved 1861 Dec. 9 establishing an Ala. hospital at Manassas, Va. Also included is an 1861 Dec. letter to Shorter from Dr. Peter Bryce strongly advising against a proposal to confine Union prisoners-of-war in the Ala. Insane Hospital at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Some of the more frequent correspondents include: William M. Brooks, discussing a neglect in agricultural production because of constant militia drills and the status of construction of defenses on the Tombigbee River using impressed slave labor; Benjamin F. Porter, dicussing the transfer of the Greenville militia to Pensacola, Fla., and opposition to the use of army officers to enforce the conscription law; Dr. Francis A. Bates, discussing conditions at the army hospital at Corinth, Miss.; Samuel K. Rayburn, describing the conditions endured by indigent families of soldiers; and former Gov. A. B. Moore, who, serving as Shorter's aide-de-camp, discusses such topics as conscription of university cadets, salt distribution, and labor of state-impressed slaves. The series contains numerous requests from persons desiring Shorter's assistance in obtaining military discharges or transfers for them, their husbands or sons. Also included are letters from Ladies Aid Societies reporting on their progress in producing clothing and blankets for the troops, as well as letters from local vigilance committees requesting the appropriate action to take against persons "uttering treasonous statements against the Confederacy."

Originals: 3 cubic ft. (2 records center cartons and 2 archives boxes).Copies: 9 microfilm reels.

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6832516

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Related Entities

There are 15 Entities related to this resource.

Confederate States of America

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hz25g7 (corporateBody)

During the Civil War, the Confederate States of America issued their own currency notes. These circulated like cash, but were technically bills of credit. At the beginning of the war, they circulated widely, but by the end of the war they had lost nearly all their value. Many of the bills remained in private hands after the war and became collectible as memorabilia. Other bills, which the Union Army had confiscated, were in the hands of the United States War Department; it transferred them to th...

Benjamin, J. P. (Judah Philip), 1811-1884

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61657pz (person)

Judah Philip Benjamin, QC (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was a lawyer and politician who was a United States Senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English barrister. Benjamin was the first Jew to hold a Cabinet position in North America and the first to be elected to the United States Senate who had not renounced his faith. Benjamin was born to Sephardic Jewish parents from Londo...

Rayburn, Samuel K. 1812-1892.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hx3q12 (person)

Moore, A. B. 1807-1873.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6989106 (person)

Brooks, William M. b.1815.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69d6gj0 (person)

Clopton, David, 1820-1892

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61k1k1v (person)

Bates, Francis A. 1819-1889.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xp9gvh (person)

Bryce, Peter, 1834-1892

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zg6x2p (person)

Peter Bryce (1834-92) was a pioneering figure in the field of mental health. Practicing in the post–Civil War era, he championed more humane therapeutic treatments for the mentally ill. He held important offices in both state and national organizations relating to the health professions and was the first superintendent of the state mental hospital that now bears his name. Bryce was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Peter and Martha Smith Bryce. He graduated with disti...

Shorter, John Gill, 1818-1872

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f48ckf (person)

Civil War governor of Ala. From the description of Papers, 1860-1861. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 38247275 Governor of Alabama and jurist. From the description of John Gill Shorter correspondence, 1862. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70980457 ...

Porter, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Faneuil), 1808-1868

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m33tk4 (person)

Benjamin Faneuil Porter was a lawyer, editor and author who resided in Claiborne, Tuscaloosa, and Greenville, Alabama. He also served in the Alabama State legislature and as a circuit judge. He edited fifteen volumes of State Supreme Court reports, wrote editorials for several newspapers and authored many songs and poems during the Civil War. From the description of Letters, 1834-1838. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122508267 Porter, a native of Charleston, S.C., settled in ...

Yancey, William Lowndes, 1814-1863

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w38039 (person)

American lawyer and politician. From the description of Autograph signature clipped from the register of Brown's Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1857 Mar. 24. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270584435 Lawyer, Ala. legislator, and secessionist. From the description of Letter, 1858 June 15. (Filson Historical Society, The). WorldCat record id: 49479565 Attorney, editor, and politician, William L. Yancey was for many years a resident of Greenville, South Carolina. ...

Huey, James Grandison Leroy, b.1813.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6088h0t (person)

Crenshaw, W. H. 1817-1878.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f13k3 (person)

Alabama Insane Hospital.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63z40bd (corporateBody)

Alabama. Governor (1861-1863 : Shorter).

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cs1m57 (corporateBody)