Battle Family Papers

The Battle Family Papers document the life of William Horn Battle (1802–1879) of Louisburg, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, a white lawyer, legislator, judge, and trustee and professor of law at the University of North Carolina; Kemp Plummer Battle (1831–1919) of Chapel Hill and Raleigh, a white lawyer, president of the Chatham Railroad, who was active in state affairs during the Civil War, served as state treasurer and as University of North Carolina president and professor of history; and Kemp Plummer Battle's son, William James Battle (1870–1955), a white University of North Carolina and Harvard student, professor of classics, dean, and acting president, and professor of classics at the University of Texas and at the University of Cincinnati. The collection documents the family and many aspects of North Carolina history, including life on the Confederate homefront and social conditions during Reconstruction. There are also materials relating to the Episcopal Church, in which the Battles were active lay members, and some slave bills of sale and Chatham County Railroad items.