Processed by: Archives Staff ; machine-readable finding aid created by:Eric Weig
Henry Clay Weaver letters, 1861-1945
1861-1865 (bulk dates)
University of Kentucky Special CollectionsLexington, Kentucky 40506
Arranged chronologically.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Henry Clay Weaver letters, 1861-1945, 1861-1865 (bulk dates), 1FM-29, Special Collections, University of Kentucky.
1 reel
Lawyer, soldier. Henry Clay Weaver worked as clerk of the Bracken County (Ky.) Circuit Courts from 1861 until he joined the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War. He served in the Sixteenth Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry where he achieved the rank of captain. Weaver returned to Bracken County after the war, was admitted to the bar in 1868, and was elected attorney of Bracken County. In 1876, he served as editor of the Bracken Record and later worked as a local correspondent for the Augusta Chronicle.
This collection consists primarily of Henry Clay Weaver's Civil War correspondences to his future wife, Cornelia S. Wiley. Besides Weaver's letters, this material includes a few printed military orders, a newspaper obituary of Weaver, and two letters by Weaver's heirs which contain genealogical records of the Wiley family. Weaver's letters, dating from 1861- 1865, chronicle the activities of his regiment in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Washington, D.C, and North Carolina. Weaver was often in the forefront of battles, and he presents vivid accounts of skirmishes which he encountered. He includes information about men in his company, reports on the general living conditions of the army and describes the major cities visited. These letters also contain many sentimental expressions from Weaver to his future wife.