EVERETT, JOHN A.
John Everett letters, 1861-1865

Restrictions on access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Source

Gift, prior to 1955, with subsequent additions.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], John Everett letters, Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Barbara J. Mann, July 1988.

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Biographical Note

John A. Everett, a shoemaker from Hayneville, Houston County, Georgia, served as a private in Company K of the 11th Georgia Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia, from 1861-1865. His regiment mustered into service on July 3, 1861, at Atlanta, Georgia, and was transported to Virginia and quartered at the new fairgrounds in Richmond until July 15, 1861, when they moved to northeastern Virginia. Everett's regiment was stationed in Virginia from 1861-1863, in northeastern Tennessee from 1863-1864, and again in Virginia, with heavy fighting in Fredericksburg, Petersburg, and Richmond, from 1864-1865. He surrendered with his regiment at Appomatox, Virginia, April 9, 1865.

Some of his service time was spent working in several government shoe factories, including one in New Market, Tennessee, in 1864, making and mending shoes for his brigade. Serving with him in the same regiment were his father, J. H. Everett, private, and his brother, T. [Thomas?] H. Everett, also a private. J. H. Everett died in a military hospital in Richmond, December 24, 1861, and was buried there. T. H. Everett was frequently hospitalized during the war and was captured at Wilderness, Virginia, May 6, 1864. Remaining at home in Hayneville, Georgia, were his mother, Patience C. Everett and two small children, "Baby Sister" and Buck. A history of the regiment for 1861-1863 can be found in History of the Eleventh Georgia Volunteers by Kittrell J. Warren (Smith, Bailey and Company, 1863). A muster roll of the regiment is found in Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865, Volume II compiled by Lillian Henderson (Longino and Porter, Inc., 1959).

Scope and Content Note

The John A. Everett collection consists of approximately one hundred and six letters of which the majority were written by John A. Everett to his mother, Patience C. Everett, in Hayneville, Georgia. The other correspondents include J. H. Everett (ca. six letters, 1861), T. H. Everett (ca. six letters, 1861-1864) also writing to Patience C. Everett, James [Everett?], [cousin?] of John A. Everett writing to his sister, Sallie, (ca. two letters, 1864), and unknown individuals (ca. four letters, 1861, 1865.)

The letters from John A. Everett were sent consistently throughout the war with ca. twenty letters being sent a year. The focus of these letters were on daily army life and matters at home.

The additions from Mr. David J. Holquist are transcriptions prepared while researching material for a docu-drama for stage in which actual words would be used for the common soldier rather than a fictional interpretation. Mr. Holquist used the John A. Everett Letters for his research. These transcriptions were copied word for word with brackets used to designate those words which were undecipherable and parenthesis used to designate those words of which Mr. Holquist was unsure in his transcription. The original spelling was retained.

Arrangement Note

Materials arranged in chronological order.