Online finding aids for the collections were
suppressed while the materials were unavailable for research, but now that they are
back in their original containers, onsite and offsite patrons can access them
through the finding aids link on the AHC’s website. Researchers simply follow the "Research," "Search the collection," and "Finding aids" links in order to search for digital content here.
What follows is a small sample of the letters, diaries, and images available online for the first time from the Civil War collections at the Atlanta History Center:
This collection contains two diaries of Abigail M. Brooks, dated
1865 and 1870, along with typed transcriptions of both. There is also an 1858 invitation
to attend church. In the 1865 diary, Brooks describes life in rural Tennessee,
near Nashville, where she teaches in a one room school house. Later in the
year, Abigail moves to Edgefield, Tennessee, also near Nashville, and starts
her own school. She describes life in Edgefield, trials with her students, the
smoking stove, and parents who don’t pay tuition. She also describes trips to
Nashville to shop, take music lessons, and visit with friends. In April 1865,
she mentions the fall of Richmond, General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, and President
Lincoln’s assassination. She describes meeting soldiers who were traveling home
from war and learning about their war experiences. In the 1870 diary, Brooks
describes the cities of Edgefield, Nashville, Atlanta, Madison, Augusta, and
Savannah. Her diary gives insight into the Presbyterian churches that Abigail
attended while living in these cities. She describes the services, the
ministers, and the church buildings. Many of the entries discuss her efforts to
make a living selling books, religious prints, maps, and pictures of Robert E.
Lee, both door-to-door and in local factories and offices. She mentions many
local businessmen and their wives and comments on race relations, travel, city
conditions, and the hardships she encountered as a single woman trying to make
a living in the post-Civil War South.
This collection consists of
letters written between Clara and Gilmer Watts between August 1862 and July
1864. Her letters deal with her management of the family and her new occupation
as a teacher as well as her encouragement of Gilmer’s desire to become a
preacher. Gilmer writes about his
sicknesses, poor rations, sporadic pay, and the vagaries of camp life. His letters document his unit’s movements
through Kentucky and Indiana, and also include descriptions of his time as a
prisoner of war in Maryland and Missouri.
After his release in a prisoner exchange in 1863, Gilmer rejoined his unit and continued to write about
the hard edged life of a soldier in camp until his death in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on July 19, 1864. In addition to Gilmer’s and Clara’s
correspondence, the collection contains two separate death notices for Gilmer; currency;
his enlistment papers; and three small books entitled The Soldier’s Hymn Book,
A Rainy Day in Camp, and The Roll Call or How will You Answer It. Gilmer also kept a journal in which he
recorded his army movements as well as a list of letters he received and sent,
a list of addresses, and a list of money accounts.
