Gift of Civil War letters gives glimpse of soldiers’ trials

From Rebecca Parker to Robert Parker, 16 May 1863, volume 2, in the Robert Parker Papers #5261, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
After Robert W. Parker joined the Second Virginia
Cavalry in 1861, he wrote to his loved ones whenever he
could.
Some letters reflected the grueling life of the
soldier—complaints about rations and camp routines,
requests for clothing, horses and ink. Others captured the
uncertainty of life in wartime:
“Dear Beck,” he began in 1863 to his wife,
Rebecca, “Though this note may never reach you there
is nothing like trying to get one to you [sic] Of course,
you have been in great suspense as to my being dead or
alive.”
Parker’s letters, dating through almost all of the
Civil War, now speak to modern readers from a new home in
the Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Library at
Carolina.
The Dooley family of Charlotte, Parker’s descendents,
recently donated the 350-item Robert W. Parker Papers to
the library. The family also established the Parker-Dooley
Fund for Southern History with a gift of $250,000 to the
Southern Historical Collection.
“This is the final chapter and a new beginning in the
journey of a family treasure that started with my
great-grandfather’s first letter,” said David
Dooley, executive vice president at Charlotte-based R.T.
Dooley Construction Co.
The papers complement strong Civil War collections already
held by the UNC Library, said Tim West, manuscripts curator
and director of the Southern Historical Collection.

Cousins Caroline Dooley, 9, Catherine Dooley, 13, and Nancy Lee McLean, 11, examine the Civil War letters of their great-great-great-great grandfather, Robert W. Parker, in the Southern Historical Collection. Parker’s descendants have donated the letters to the library with a gift establishing the Parker-Dooley Fund for Southern History. (Photo by Fred Stipe)
“We have hundreds of collections featuring letters
from soldiers,” West said. “However, it’s
rare to see a run of correspondence that covers the war in
Virginia from the very beginning to the very end.”
Approximately 300 of the letters are from Parker to his
wife, his parents and other relatives.
West expects the collection to attract researchers
interested in military life and in the way the war affected
families. “You come to understand that these were
real people living day by day in extremely trying
circumstances,” said West. “You get a sense of
what the typical Confederate soldier felt and understood
about what was happening.”
The human dimension of the story is heightened, West said,
by its end. Although Parker saw relatively little combat
over the course of the war, he was killed in 1865 at
Appomattox Courthouse, the war’s final battle before
the surrender of Robert E. Lee. He died just 40-50 miles
from his home near Bedford, Va., which then was called
Liberty.
The saga of the letters did not end with Parker’s
death. In recent years, the Dooley family had the letters
professionally conserved, transcribed and bound. They also
consulted Peter S. Carmichael, a historian at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Carmichael enlisted one of his students, Catherine Wright,
who graduated recently with a master’s degree in
history. Over the past year, Wright annotated the
transcripts, explaining and identifying places and people
mentioned in the letters.
She also wrote analyses of Parker’s views and an
introduction, then grouped these elements and the
transcripts into a proposed book. Her collection, with the
working title Lee’s Last Casualty: The Civil War
Letters of Robert W. Parker, is being considered for
publication.
The transcripts are especially helpful because many of the
originals are hard to read, West said. “They reflect
the conditions in which they were written. Some of the
papers are poor-quality scraps, with torn sections and worn
areas, and with cramped writing that makes use of every
available inch.”
When the time came to find a home for their treasured
documents, the Dooleys turned to family friend Erskine
Bowles, UNC system president. Bowles connected the Dooleys
with the Southern Historical Collection.
West’s plans for the Parker-Dooley Fund honor this
UNC connection. A key use of the endowment will be a
competitive stipend to support graduate students and young
faculty from UNC institutions other than Carolina who wish
to conduct research in the Southern Historical Collection.
West also will establish a Parker-Dooley Award to recognize
excellent writing by Carolina students based on Southern
Historical Collection holdings.
“I could not be more excited about the impact the
Parker-Dooley Fund can have on the lives of faculty,
students and visiting scholars,” David Dooley said.
“As my family and I grow our business, we have come
to realize the competitive advantage intellectual capital
plays in our success. A strong university system plays into
our strategy and raises the knowledge tides for all North
Carolinians.”
The Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Library is
open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9
a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, call
919-962-1345.
This story was originally published by UNC News Services,
July 10, 2006.