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Collection: SAMUEL WHEELER WORTHINGTON COLLECTION
1841 (1863-1864) 1928
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Physical Description: 17 items; correspondence, essay, notice, agreement.
Acquisition: From Biennial Reports. 1938-1930. 1 letter (1863) presented
by S. W. Worthington. From donor file, December 31. 1943. 14 items: -
sketch on Infayette by E. C. Yellowley, 2 special orders (l864), and
11 letters (1863-1865), gift of S. W. Worthington, Wilson, N. C.
Description: Samuel Wheeler Worthington, bom 1875, Bertie County; son of
Julia Wheeler and Dennison Worthington (state legislator, Martin County,
1881-1887); grandson of Dr. Samuel J. Wheeler of Hertford County, the
brother , of John H. Wheeler, historian; educated University of North Caro¬
lina, 1893-1895.
The collection consists primarily of eleven (ll) letters to Lt. Col.
Edward Clements Yellowley, 1863-1864, during his service with the 68th
Regiment, N. C.T. Yellowley was bom c. 1823, Martin County; graduated
University of North Carolina, 1844; large farming interests; lawyer in
Greenville, Pitt County, where he killed his friend and rival, H. F. Harris
a state representative, in an 1847 duel [see Henry T. King, Sketches of
Pitt County. 1911, pp. 110-112]. In 1861, captain, 8th Regiment, Hatteras;
1863, candidate for Confederate congress (defeated by R. R. Bridgers); Lt.
Col., 68th Regiment; state representative, Pitt County, 1865; never married;
died 1885.
Letters to Yellowley include those from his commanding officer, Colonel
James R. Hinton, regarding lack of discipline in the command; from parents
of a kidnapped boy and of a conscriptee; from his family concerning farm and
Negroes, taxes and money matters, the elections of 1864, etc. Of special
interest are 'letters from William B. Rodman (Richmond, April, 1864) urging
Yellowley to be a candidate from Pitt County for the 1865 General Assembly
and from Captain Wiley F. Parker, 14th Battalion (79th Regiment) reporting
cavalry activities in the mountains of Western North Carolina and describing
the death of Major Charles M. Roberts and the arrest, desertion, and death
of a young lieutenant ("brave as a lion") who had joined Col. George W.
Kirk's Yankee raiders. Two (2) special orders issued by Yellowley and Hinton
refer to regimental routine. Included is an essay on Lafayette written when
Yellowley was a student in 1841.
