John Bramblett Beall Letters

John Bramblett Beall (1833-1917) was born in Carroll County, Ga. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he served in the 19th Georgia Infantry Regiment in the Virginia campaigns in 1861 and was wounded in the hip at Mechanicsville in 1862. During his recovery, he served as conscription officer at Manning, S.C., and tax collector in Carroll County, Ga. In 1864, he was elected major of a battalion of cavalry raised in Carroll and Heard counties. After the war, he served as a judge and edited several newspapers in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. The papers of John Bramblett Beall consist of twelve letters, 1860-1865, addressed to his cousin (later his wife), Mary J. Merrill. The letters discuss various aspects of military life during Beall's service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, including his time with the 19th Georgia Infantry Regiment and later as a conscription officer in Manning, S.C. Included are second-hand reports of military events, such as Shiloh and Jackson's victory at Winchester, Va., and a discussion of morale among Confederate troops and civilians when Beall was recruiting. The letters refer to aspects of everyday life on the home front in the Confederacy, including the price of food and lodgings in South Carolina.