Samuel G. Bowdlear and Austin C. Wellington correspondence
Scope and Contents
The Samuel G. Bowdlear and Austin C. Wellington correspondence spans the years 1862 to 1865 and contains 106 letters between Samuel Bowdlear and Austin Wellington (27 from Wellington and 79 from Bowdlear).
Samuel G. Bowdlear’s letters document life in Boston, Massachusetts during the Civil War, including local sentiment in Boston regarding national events and local news. His letters also describe the locations of businesses, meeting halls, fires, parades, and processions as well as updates on troop movements, battles, local elections, and draft riots in Boston.
Austin Wellington's letters document his experiences during the Siege of Port Hudson, skirmishes in Louisiana, and battles in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Wellington describes camp life, travel, illness, and interactions with enemy soldiers. The letters also illustrate his first encounters with plantations and slavery, African American troops, and the living conditions of Southern men and women.
Dates
- 1862-1865
Creator
- Bowdlear, Samuel G. (Person)
- Wellington, Austin C. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Items in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. In most cases, the Boston Public Library does not hold the copyright to the items in our collections. It is the sole responsibility of the user to make their own determination about what types of usage might be permissible under U.S. and international copyright law.
Biographical / Historical
Chronology:
1813 - Bowdlear born in Boston, Massachusetts.
1840 - Wellington born in Lexington, Massachusetts.
1856-1862 - Wellington serves as apprentice at Bowdlear & Green, Flour Merchants.
1862-1865 - Bowdlear begins correspondence with Wellington.
1862 - Wellington leaves Boston with the 38th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers.
1863 - Wellington is promoted to Sergeant. Fights in a battle near Camp Opelousas, Louisiana. Participates in the siege and surrender of Port Hudson, Louisiana. Receives promotion to Second Lieutenant.
1864 - Moves with regiment to Alexandria, Virginia. Is commissioned to First Lieutenant.
1865 - Marches with General Sheridan to Savannah. Returns to Massachusetts and is mustered out of service.
1872 - Bowdlear dies in Boston.
1888 - Wellington dies in Cambridge.
Extent
106 Items
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
The material is arranged chronologically.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from B.& L. Rootenberg Fine and Rare Books
Processing Information
This electronic finding aid is transcribed from legacy data. In many cases, transcriptions were not verified against collection materials at the time of transcription. As a result, this finding aid could be incomplete and might only reflect a partial understanding of the material.
Statement on harmful description
Archival description reflects the biases of time periods and cultures in which it was created and may include direct quotations or descriptions that use inappropriate or harmful language. Creator provided descriptions may be maintained in order to preserve the context in which the collection was created and/or used. Legacy description and potentially offensive content may be made available online until a collection can be reprocessed because the access that they provide to primary source materials is uniquely valuable to the research community at large. Our efforts to repair outdated descriptions and to describe our collections more equitably are iterative and ongoing.
- Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Port Hudson (La.) -- History -- Siege, 1863. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- African Americans. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Social life and customs. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Samuel G. Bowdlear and Austin C. Wellington Correspondence
- Author
- Laura Hoff
- Date
- 2009
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2011-10: Finding aid updated by BPL staff.
About this library
Part of the Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections Repository
