Eutaw Plantation, South Carolina, Collection Featuring Written Account of Yankee Raid on Plantation, Plus Related Items from the Sinkler & Darby Famil

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By Cowan's Auctions

Jun 12, 2015 - Jun 13, 2015

Set Reminder 2015-06-12 10:00:00 2015-06-13 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American History Live Salesroom Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-history-live-salesroom-auction-663
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• Lot Description
  Lot of 19 items, including books, photographs, and other personal belongings related to the Sinkler and Darby families of South Carolina. 
   
  The highlight of the collection is a 4pp, post-Civil War account entitled The Raid at Eutaw Plantation, by Mrs. Deas F. Sinkler Darby, which offers a detailed description of a Yankee attack on her family's plantation. Research indicates that Deas was born to William and Anna Sinkler in 1847. In the letter, Deas paints a vivid picture of the raid on Eutaw, which involved Union General Alfred Hartwell and his soldiers. She describes the chaos, in part...in the twinkle of an eye the house and yard swarmed with black and white soldiers, they rushed all over the house ostensibly looking for fire arms, opening bureau drawers, throwing things on the floor...by that time hundreds of negroes from neighboring plantations had gathered - rushed madly around whooping and screaming many of them drunk...She also mentions that the General stayed in the house..eating and drinking the best of everything while all we had to eat was wheat.
   
  The letter is accompanied by the privately published book written by Deas' relative, Elizabeth Allen Sinkler Coxe, entitled Memories of a South Carolina Plantation During the War (1912), in which General Hartwell's raid is described in further detail. 
  
  Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sinkler Coxe was born in 1843 at Belvidere Plantation near Eutawville, SC, which was in close proximity to Eutaw Plantation. She was the daughter of Charles Sinkler and Emily Wharton Sinkler. Her father was a successful cotton plantation owner in South Carolina and her mother was a member of the prominent Wharton family of Philadelphia. She authored several books including An Antebellum Plantation Household and Between North and South: The Letters of Emily Wharton Sinkler, 1842-1865.
  
  Elizabeth overcame the traumas of the Civil War and afterwards married Union Army Major Charles Brinton Coxe in 1870. They moved to Drifton, PA, in 1873, and had only been married three years when Charles died very unexpectedly during a trip to Egypt. After being widowed, Elizabeth dedicated herself to a lifelong pursuit of philanthropy, intellectual endeavors, and extensive world travel with her family. Elizabeth kept numerous letters, diaries, records, photos and other memorabilia of her life’s experiences, part of which she put into book form in Memories of a South Carolina Plantation (offered today) and War and Tales from the Grand Tour, 1890-1910 (Women's Diaries and Letters of the South).
  
  The archive is accompanied by a Sinkler family CDV album containing 9 images, most unidentified, bearing Charleston, SC, Philadelphia, PA, and Mt. Vernon, OH, backmarks. However, a small tintype of a young woman in paper mount is identified in period pencil as Lizzie Sinkler.
   
  Other personal belongings include a Bible, cover identified in gilt lettering to W. Sinkler, dated 1852, likely the father of Deas F. Sinkler Darby; Bible inscribed on FFEP to My dear little daughter Margaret C. Darby, dated 1885; and 2 sketchbooks and an autograph album identified to Margaret Darby, Columbia SC.
  
  Lastly, the collection includes 2 early 20th century silver prints of Eutaw Plantation and a chapel near Eutaw, as well as a book entitled Plantations of the Carolina Low Country by Samuel Gaillard Stoney, published in 1945. Both the Eutaw and Belvidere Plantations, which were lost as a result of flooding in the area, are referenced in the book.
  
  These items were found among the belongings of Confederate Lt. Colonel Warren Adams, whose family is linked to the Sinker and Darby families through marriage. (See also Lots 31-37.)
  
  The Adams Family of South Carolina:
  
  A collection of photographs and manuscripts concerning one of South Carolina’s oldest and most prominent families. Lots 31-37, 103
  
  The Adams family came to the area near present day Columbia, SC, in the mid-18th century, acquired major land holdings, and became prosperous plantation owners. They were strongly involved in political and military affairs of their state, region, and country, playing major roles in state government as well as the Mexican American and Civil Wars.
  
  James Adams, son of Henry Coker Adams, emigrated from England to Virginia in the early seventeenth century seeking a new life in colonial America. There, he married Agnes Walker and fathered two children before Agnes’ death in 1755. One of the children died early, the other, Joel, survived into adulthood.
  
  Joel Adams was born February 4, 1750, in Culpepper, VA. He was the first of the family to settle in lower Richland County, SC, at Wavering Place in 1768. He married Grace Weston in 1773 and together they bore seven children. Before the American Revolution, Joel began acquiring land along the Congaree River in lower Richland County, accumulating 25,000 acres of plantations in the area. In the Revolutionary War, he was a leader of South Carolina militia forces and served in the Continental Army. He strongly believed in education, and political and military service to one’s state and country. Two of his children were educated at Yale. He died July 8, 1830, in Richland, SC, where he is buried.
  
  One of Joel’s sons, Henry Walker Adams, had the unfortunate situation of losing his wife (Mary Goodwyn) and then dying himself at the early age of 25, leaving behind a son, James Hopkins Adams. Joel raised his grandson until his own death.
  
  James Hopkins Adams was born March 15, 1812, in the Richland District in South Carolina, and died there July 13, 1861. He graduated from Yale in 1831, married Jane Margaret Scott in April 1832, and they had eleven children. He was Brigadier General of Cavalry for the South Carolina Militia and served several terms as a State Representative and State Senator. In 1854, he was elected to be the 66th Governor of South Carolina, serving through 1856. As a member of the “Convention of the People” in 1860-1861, he was a signatory to the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. Subsequently, Adams served as a Commissioner of South Carolina to the US government to negotiate the transfer of United States property in South Carolina to the state government. He died at Live Oak, his country residence, and is buried in St. John's Episcopal Churchyard in Congaree, SC.
  
  This collection principally concerns one of J. H. Adams children, Warren Adams, (1838–1884) who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the CSA. He was in command of the First South Carolina Infantry Regiment at Battery Wagner, Charleston, SC (Lots 32-35, 37).
  
  Images and documents related to extended family members, such as 2nd Lieutenant David Adams, KIA in the Mexican American War (Lot 31), and Captain Robert Adams, Charleston Light Dragoons (Lot  36) are also included in the collection, as well as an archive of material regarding the Sinkler & Darby Families, relatives through marriage (Lot 103).
  
  Provenance:Descended in the Family of Confederate Lt. Colonel Warren Adams

  Condition

  Wear to privately published book, including full separation between cover and spine of book.
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