White, John Chester Papers, 1822-1919
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: White, John Chester
Title: Papers, 1822-1919
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 5 cubic feet
Location Number: Mss. A W585
Scope and Content Note
Papers include typed manuscript of John Chester White’s “The War of the Union against Secession, 1861-1865,” an unpublished month-by-month narration of the “War between the States” in five volumes (completed circa 1919). Papers also include a folder of memoranda about the manuscript (Box 1, folder 1), as well as two boxes of additional papers (boxes 14, 15) including biographical sketches of Confederate and Union officers, illustrative material, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous printed matter, including a memo from the U.S. War Department (1905) on the general officers appointed by the President in the armies of the Confederacy.
Biographical Note
John Chester White was born in New York on 8 March 1841 to John Chester White and Lavinia Maxwell White. John Chester White the elder died in 1843 in Hudson, New York. White the younger graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1861 and afterward enlisted in the Pennsylvania infantry; he later enlisted in the Regular Army Infantry in 1863 and by the end of the Civil War, he was a full first lieutenant.
In 1880, the White family was living in Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts; White was a Captain, first artillery, and was married to Mary E. White. They had four children: Chester (11), Alice (9), Mary W. (7), and Charles B. (5).
White retired from the U.S. Army on 20 September 1883, and later traveled abroad.
In 1890, White married Aurtine F. White and was living in Brockton, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, and the National Geographic Society.
In 1900, White was living in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife and daughter Alice; he died in 1921.
White had kept a journal from his entry into the army and had transcribed it after the Civil War, adding and filing printed material on the war, battles, and individuals. He believed that by writing his work, he was fulfilling a “neglected niche in our military annals which called for the supply of a connected narrative of the services of Regular officers and soldiery-from outbreak to close of the hostilities.” While the manuscript of his book resides at The Filson, the typescript of his journal, along with some other papers, is held by the Library of Congress.
Information for this biographical note was gleaned from the collection, as well as the Federal Census, 1880-1910
Folder List
Box 1
Volume I (1861), pages 1-179, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 1a: Memoranda about the manuscript of “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 1b: Title page and forward to “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 2
Volume I (1861), pages 180-453, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 3
Volume II (1862), pages 1-151, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 4
Volume II (1862), pages 152-366, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 5
Volume II (1862), pages 367-591, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 6
Volume III (1863), pages 1-157, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 7
Volume III (1863), pages 158-275, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 8
Volume III (1863), pages 276-468, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 9
Volume IV (1864), pages 1-252, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 10
Volume IV (1864), pages 253-446, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 11
Volume VI (1864), pages 447-611, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 11a: Newsclippings and images relating to Volume IV
Box 12
Volume V (1865) “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 13
Folder 13a: Epilogue, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 13b: Appendix A, Roll of Honor and Appendix B, List of Officers going into C.S.A., “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 13c: Appendix C, Military Prisons: North and South, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 13d: Appendix D, List of regular officers who held volunteer commissions and commands, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 13e: Appendix E, Transportation and Supply, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 13f: Appendix F, Aeronautics in the Civil War, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 13g: Appendices G-K, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 13h: Maps, “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Box 14
Folder 14a: Letters to John White Chester, 1911-1915
Folder 14b: Biographical sketches of Confederate and Union officers
Folder 14c: Portion of handwritten manuscript of “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 14d: Memoranda for Volume I of “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 14e: Memoranda for Volume V of “The War of the Union Against Secession, 1861-1865.”
Folder 14f: Memoranda
Folder 14g: Lease by Charles P. Barton and George Du Reele to J. R. T. Barbour for 10 acres of land in Bullitt County, Kentucky, near Huber’s Station on the L. and N. Railroad, July, 1891.
Folder 14h: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and miscellaneous printed matter
Folder 14i: U.S. War Department Memorandum relative to the general officers appointed by the President in the armies of the Confederate States, 1861-1865, compiled from official records (The Military Secretary’s Office, War Department), 1905.
Box 15
Folder 15a: Civil War pictures
Folder 15b: Army pictures of the period following the Civil War
Folder 15c: Pictures of Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, officers of 1st U. S. Infantry, etc.
Folder 15d: Newspaper clippings
Folder 15e (ovsz): Map of Gettysburg Battlefield
Loose: Seven envelopes of clippings and images
Subject Headings
Cold Harbor, Battle of, Va., 1864
Dixon, Thomas, 1864-1946
Fort Sanders, Battle of, Knoxville, Tenn., 1863
Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg Pa., 1863
Knoxville (Tenn.) – History – Siege, 1863
Libby Prison
Mine Run Campaign, Va., 1863
Petersburg Crater, Battle of, Va., 1864
Petersburg (Va.) – History – Siege, 1864-1865
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Destruction and pillage
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Equipment and supplies
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Influence
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Personal narratives
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Press coverage
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Prisoners and prisons
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Underground movements
Warren, Gouverneur Kemble, 1830-1882
