INTRODUCTION
This collection consists chiefly of secondary sources relating to Company B, 27th Regiment, North Carolina Troops, Confederate States of America, with one original document. Several items deal with the general history of the company.
Arrangement: This collection is arranged into three series: Manuscript, Newspaper Clippings, and Typescripts.
Provenance: This collection was assigned accession number 1939.551.
Processing: This collection was processed by Karen C. Carroll with the finding aid completed in August 1983.
HISTORICAL NOTE
The “Guilford Grays” were organized as a militia company in Greensboro on January 9, 1860. Thirteen officers were selected for the Infantry Company. On April 18, 1861, the forty-five members of the Grays left for Ft. Macon, NC, and by September 1862, they became Company B, 27th Regiment, North Carolina Troops. In February 1862, they were relocated to New Bern but were driven back to Kinston. They later fought in the Seven Days Battle, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Bristoe Station, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and others, and surrendered at Appomattox. The Grays served in the Spanish-American War and World War I. Currently the “Guilford Grays” are a reenactment unit.
SCOPE & CONTENT NOTE
This collection consists of nine items only one of which is a manuscript document (a list of members killed at Bristoe Station). There are three photocopies of newspaper articles and several typescript histories of the unit. There are also typescripts of two letters by members of the Grays. A photocopy of the role of the unit 1861-1865 is also included. This collection provides a good general background for research into this unit and local Civil War activity.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
1. Manuscript. 1 item. 1863.
Handwritten list of members of the Grays killed, wounded and captured at the Battle of Bristoe Station, October 14, 1863.
2. Newspaper Clippings. 3 items.
Two clippings from the Greensboro Patriot, May 14 and May 17, 1861, concern the receipt of packages from home (Greensboro) and a local visit by George Howlett, member of the Grays. A twentieth-century article gives a general history of the Grays and Greensboro in 1865.
3. Typescript. 5 items.
This series includes: a photocopy of the role of the Guilford Grays taken from The Guilford Grays, by John A. Sloan (Washington, DC: R. O. Polkenhorn, 1883); typescript copy of a letter from William Adams (1860) describing the uniform of the Grays (the original is located in the James T. Morehead Family Papers); a letter by John Thomas Rhoades, July 21, 1901, describing life in the Grays (TS); a typescript giving an abbreviated history of the Grays and of the 20th Century reenactment group; and a script used on television in September of 1963 giving a history of the Grays (11 pages).
FOLDER LISTING
| Series | Folder | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Manuscript |
| 2 | 1 | Newspaper Clippings |
| 3 | 1 | Typescripts |
