Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Wednesday's Wonderful Collection - John Crowell Wright papers, SMC.32.13

John Crowell Wright was born March 14, 1835, in Georgia, and moved with his family to Union County, Arkansas, in 1843. He married Mary Alabama Newton on March 29, 1859. At the start of the Civil War, Wright joined the Confederate Army and was elected captain of Company C, Fifteenth Infantry Regiment, and then lieutenant colonel. Captured at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, Wright escaped and rejoined the Confederate Army, serving in Arkansas with the regiment of his brother-in-law, Asa Morgan, and then as colonel in the Twelth Arkansas Cavalry Regiment. After the war, Wright returned to Union County and served as circuit and county clerk and state representative. He died January 18, 1915. A compilation of Wright's memoirs were published in 1982 under the title "Memoirs of Colonel John C. Wright C.S.A."

This collection contains material related to or written by John Crowell Wright. His memoir provides details of General Sterling Price's raid into Missouri in 1864, as well as the guerrilla warfare in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri.
·         1. 1980 August 1: Marjana (Mrs. Ted) Beavert, El Dorado, Arkansas, to the Arkansas History Commission (Reel MG00218)
·         2. 1914 November 20: Dallas T. Herndon, Little Rock, Arkansas, to J.C. Wright, Whelen Springs, Arkansas
·         3. Undated: Arkansas History Commission biographical memoranda, John Crowell Wright
·         4. Undated: Speech, "A Gem of Purest Ray," John Crowell Wright's oration at the unveiling of the cannon "Old Betsy"
·         5. Undated: "In Memorium," Mary Alabama Wright
·         6. 1915: "Quotes from tributes paid Col. John Crowell Wright, at his death in El Dorado, Arkansas, Age 79"
·         7. Undated: "Missouri Raid of General Price 1864: The Memoirs of Col. John Crowell Wright of Union County, Arkansas"