CHARLES WOODSON COLLECTION

Charles Woodson

A Guide to His Collection, Ms2002-014

Prepared by
Catherine G. OBrion
Encoded by
Catherine G. OBrion
2002

Collection Summary

Title:	Charles Woodson Collection
Span Dates:	1862-1863
Creator:	Woodson, Charles
Size:	10.5 Linear Inches
Repository:	Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries,Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Abstract:	Manuscript orderly book kept by Major Charles Woodson, 2nd Battalion, 63rd Regiment, Virginia Militia, from 1814 to 1820, scrapbook of newspaper clippings ca. 1852-1861, miscellaneous accounts and receipts, and an early handmade lace cap.

Administrative Information

Provenance: The Charles Woodson Collection was purchased by Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, from Carmen Valentino Rare Books and Manuscripts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in April 2002.

Processing History: The collection was processed by Catherine G. OBrion in May 2002.

Preferred Citation: Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Charles Woodson Collection, Ms 2002-014, Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Biographical Note

Charles Woodson (1781-1838) was born and reared in Prince Edward County. He was s commissioned a captain in the Virginia Militia, Prince Edward County in 1803 and a colonel in 1818. His battalion was called into service in August 1814 and traveled to Tappahannock, then camped at a place he refers to as Camp Carters, near Richmond, probably from 30 August 1814 to 28 December 1814.

Woodson served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1811-1812 and was a member of the Prince Edward County Republican Committee of Correspondence in 1816 and the Jackson Committee of Correspondence and Vigilance in 1827, and sheriff of Prince Edward County in 1837. He was known for his agricultural experimentation and contributed to the Farmers Register, an agricultural journal. He died at his home in Prince Edward County in 1838.

Charles Woodson married Nancy Jackson about 1803 and they had six children, only one of whom married and had children. Mary Thompson Woodson, the eldest child, married Nathaniel Venable, whose name is inscribed in the Woodson ledger. They, in turn, had two daughters, Nannie B. Venable, whose name is also inscribed in the ledger, and Mollie Venable the only grandchildren of Charles Woodson and Nancy Jackson.

Charles Woodsons´ parents were Tarleton Woodson, who was born in 1754 in Henrico County, and Anne Van Der Veer of Long Island, New York. Tarleton Woodson was a major in the Continental Army during the Revolution and a British prisoner of war on Long Island, where he met his wife. After the war they settled in Prince Edward County and had two sons, Charles and Tarleton. In 1794 Tarleton Woodson (senior) was married a second time, to Anne Friend.

Sources

Bradshaw, Herbert Clarence. History of Prince Edward County, Virginia (Richmond, Va: The Dietz Press), 1955.

Woodson, Henry Morton. Historical Genealogy of the Woodsons and their Connections, Vol. 1, supplement 1990 by Grace Woodson Curd. Printed in Roanoke, Virginia, 1991.

Scope and Content Note

The Charles Woodson Manuscript Collection consists of a manuscript orderly book, 50 scrapbook pages of newspaper clippings, eight loose manuscript pages, and an early handmade lace cap.

The orderly book dates from 1814 to 1820. It contains battalion and regiment orders, records of the commissions and resignations of officers, including the commissioning of William Venable, records of expenditures for medical care and arms for the battalion, and an account of provisions purchased for the battalion while it was encamped at a location he refers to as Camp Carters, near Richmond. It contains information about daily camp life for a militia batallion called to duty during the war of 1812 and the administration of a unit of the Virginia militia.

The eight loose manuscript pages contain regimental orders from 1815 and miscellaneous accounts and receipts from the period 1804 to 1836.

The scrapbook pages consist of 50 pages of newspaper clippings that were probably kept by Nannie W. Venable, Charles Woodson´s granddaughter, whose name is inscribed in the front of the book. They include historical accounts of Revolutionary war battles, contemporary of accounts of early Civil War battles, poetry, and articles on religion and manners.

The collection also includes a handmade lace cap that may have belonged to someone in the Woodson or Venable families.

DESCRIPTION OF SERIES
Box	Folder	Series
1		MANUSCRIPT ORDERLY BOOK, 1814-1820 Brigade, battalion, regiment, and general orders for the 2nd Battalion, 63rd Regiment, Prince Edward County, Virginia Militia. The series also contains Charles Woodson´s account of rations for the "8th Regiment, 2nd Battalion in the 8th Regiment 4th Brigade, Virginia Militia" while stationed at Camp Carters near Richmond in the fall of 1814 and a "Memorandum of various incidents etcetera of Charles Woodson major from the 2nd Battalion, 63rd Regiment called into service of the state August 1814," a record of money spent for daily rations for the battalion while in service at Camp Carters. Included are a record of payments made to a physician for services rendered to two soldiers who died in the infirmary and payments for ammunitions delivered. The orders are in the front of the book. They do not always follow chronological order. The other materials were entered in the back of the book, upside down.
1		SCRAPBOOK, ca. 1852-ca. 1861 Newspaper clippings of poetry, religious writings, essays on manners and morals, illustrations, historical sketches, and accounts of the first battles of the Civil War, probably kept by Nannie Venable, granddaughter of Charles Woodson.
1	1-4	MISCELLANEOUS, 1804-1836, n.d. Scraps of paper that contain accounts and receipts and militia orders, and a handmade lace cap.

CONTAINER LIST
MANUSCRIPT ORDERLY BOOK, 1814-1820
Pages	Contents
1-6	Brigade Orders, 4th Brigade under General Cocke, Camp Carters, 16 September 1814
9-11	Battalion Orders, 2nd Battalion, 63rd Regiment, Virginia Militia, 19 August 1815 to 3 October 1817
11	W.L. Morton, L.C.C., Commander of the 11th Brigade, to Commandant of the 63rd Regiment, Prince Edward, 3 March 1818
11-12	Battalion and Regimental Orders, 2nd Battalion, 63rd Regiment, Virginia Militia, 28 October 1815 to 29 November 1816
16	General Orders, Adjutant General´s Office, 8 June 1816
16-20	Regimental Orders, 63rd Regiment, Virginia Militia, 7 May 1818-29 March 1820
118	Statement of accounts, Camp Carters, 1814-1815
120	"Subsistence account of Charles Woodson, Major in the 8th Regiment, 2nd Battalion in the 8th Regiment 4th Brigade Virginia Militia in the service of [blank ] the stationed at Camp Carters near Richmond, 30 August -28 December 1814."
123-124	"Subsistence account of Charles Woodson, Major in the 8th Regiment, 2nd Battalion in the 8th Regiment 4th Brigade Virginia Militia in the service of [blank ] the stationed at Camp Carters near Richmond, 30 August -28 December 1814."


SCRAPBOOK, CA. 1851-CA. 1862
Pages	Contents
1-20	Newspaper clippings of historical accounts of Revolutionary battles, biographical sketches of Revolutionary statesmen, news accounts from the early 1850s, drawings, poetry, essays on manners, morals, and religion
21-48	Newspaper clippings of accounts of the first year of the Civil War, interspersed with poetry, essays on religion, and other miscellaneous articles, ca. 1861
50-51	Handwritten transcription of "The Bridge," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, n.d


MISCELLANEOUS, 1804-1834, n.d.
Box/Folder	Contents
1/1	Miscellaneous accounts and receipts, 1804, 1809, 1826, and 1834
1/2	Muster orders, 2nd Battalion, 63rd Regiment, 1815
1/3	General and battalion orders, 1816, n.d.
1/4	Early handmade lace cap, n.d.