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James Battle Avirett

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James Battle Avirett
James Battle Avirett
Personal details
Born March 12, 1835
Richlands, Onslow County, North Carolina, U.S.
Died February 16, 1912 (1912-02-17) (aged 76)
Cumberland, Maryland, U.S.
Parents John Alfred Averitt
Serena Thomas
Children John W. Avirett, Philip W. Avirett

James Battle Avirett (March 12, 1835 – February 16, 1912) was an American Confederate chaplain and author. He was the first chaplain commissioned to serve in the Confederate States Army in 1861.[1] His The Old Plantation: How We Lived in Great House and Cabin before the War, published in 1901 was a nostalgic description of life on a plantation in the Antebellum South. By the time of his death, he was "the last surviving Confederate chaplain."[2]

Early life[]

James Battle Avirett was born on March 12, 1835 in Richlands, North Carolina.[3] On his paternal side, he was of German-Huguenot descent.[4] His father, John Alfred Alvirett, was a large planter and sheriff of Onslow County, North Carolina.[4] He grew up on the Avirett-Stephens Plantation.[3]

Avirett attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1850 to 1852.[3] He was ordained as an Episcopal priest by Bishop William Meade in 1861.[3]

Career[]

Avirett was a priest of the Episcopal Church.[3] During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he served as a chaplain in the Confederate States Army in Alabama, under General Turner Ashby.[2][5][6] He was the first chaplain to be commissioned to serve in the CSA in 1861.[1]

Avirett served as the president of the Dunbar Institute, an Episcopal female seminary in Winchester, Virginia from 1865 to 1871.[3] For the next twenty-five years, he was a priest in Sligo, North Carolina, Upper Marlboro and Silver Spring, Maryland,[5] followed by Waterville, New York.[3] He served as the rector of St Paul's Church Louisburg, North Carolina from 1894 to 1899.[7]

Avirett was the author of several books. As early as 1867, he wrote a memoir of General Turner Ashby, after he had given a speech about Ashby at the University of Virginia.[8] By 1897, he wrote two religious pamphlets.

The Old Plantation title page

Avirett published The Old Plantation: How We Lived in Great House and Cabin before the War in 1901.[3][5] He had been encouraged to write about plantation life by Senator Zebulon Baird Vance. Prefaced by Hunter McGuire, it was presented as a response to Uncle Tom's Cabin.[9] For David Anderson, a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Political Studies at Swansea University, the book was emblematic of nostalgic memoirs about the Old South, which was lost forever except in writing and memories.[10] However, David Goldfield, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, suggests that it was "much less a re-creation of plantation life than a fantasy, part of the full-blown rehabilitation of the Old South that had been underway since the end of Reconstruction."[11]

Avirett was a regular contributor to the Cumberland Evening Times, a newspaper in Cumberland, Maryland.[5]

Personal life[]

Avirett married Mary Louise Dunbar Williams of Winchester, Virginia, in 1862.[6] His wife was a driving force in the establishment of the Stonewall Cemetery,[6] a Confederate cemetery near the Mount Hebron Cemetery and Gatehouse in Winchester, Virginia. The couple had two sons, John Williams Avirett (1863 - 1914), who was the owner of the Cumberland Evening Times, and Philip Williams Avirett (1867 - 1902), a lawyer and newspaper editor.[5][1]

Death[]

Avirett died on February 16, 1912 in Cumberland, Maryland.[3][5] By the time of his death, he was the last surviving Confederate chaplain.[2] He was buried in Winchester, Virginia.[3]

Bibliography[]

  • The Memoirs of General Turner Ashby and His Compeers (1867).
  • Watchman, What of the Night? or The Causes Affecting Church Growth (1897).
  • Who Was the Rebel ? (1897).
  • The Old Plantation: How We Lived in Great House and Cabin before the War (1901).

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Col. Avirett Died Suddenly.". Charlotte, North Carolina. May 29, 1914. p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/61871054/?terms=%22James%2BBattle%2BAvirett%22. Retrieved December 26, 2015.  open access publication - free to read
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Last Surviving Chaplain of the Confederate Army, Dr. James Battle Avirett, Is Dead.". Cincinnati, Ohio. February 17, 1912. p. 4. https://www.newspapers.com/image/33380742/?terms=%22James%2BBattle%2BAvirett%22. Retrieved December 26, 2015.  open access publication - free to read
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Littleton, Tucker Reed. "Avirett, James Battle by Tucker Reed Littleton, 1979". State Library of North Carolina. http://ncpedia.org/biography/avirett-james-battle. Retrieved December 26, 2015. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cecelski, David (2000). An Historian's Coast Adventures into the Tidewater Past. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, Publisher. ISBN 9780895871893. https://books.google.com/books?id=eUaYtexhvVIC&q=%22James+Battle+Avirett%22&pg=PT49. Retrieved December 26, 2015. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 "Rev. Dr. Avirett Dead. Probably Last Surviving Chaplain in the Confederate Army.". Washington, D.C.. February 17, 1912. p. 7. https://www.newspapers.com/image/76393720/?terms=%22James%2BBattle%2BAvirett%22. Retrieved December 26, 2015.  open access publication - free to read
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Honor Them. A Sacred Duty to Perform. Four Hundred Unmarked Confederate Graves--North Carolinians Who Lie Buried in Winchester, Va.--An Effort Made to Properly Mark the Resting Place of These Heroes.". Henderson, North Carolina. October 24, 1895. p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/64490034/?terms=%22James%2BBattle%2BAvirett%22. Retrieved December 26, 2015.  open access publication - free to read
  7. ↑ "Louisburg Loses Mr. Avirett". Louisburg, North Carolina. May 26, 1899. p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/64230103/?terms=%22James%2BBattle%2BAvirett%22. Retrieved December 26, 2015.  open access publication - free to read
  8. ↑ Anderson, Paul Christopher (2006). Blood File: Turner Ashby in the Civil War and the Southern Mind. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. p. 13. ISBN 9780807131619. https://books.google.com/books?id=4uuBnOmvMAEC&q=%22James+Battle+Avirett%22&pg=PA13. Retrieved December 26, 2015. 
  9. ↑ "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Statesville, North Carolina. September 14, 1899. p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/67897127/?terms=%22James%2BBattle%2BAvirett%22. Retrieved December 26, 2015.  open access publication - free to read
  10. ↑ Anderson, David (February 2005). "Down Memory Lane: Nostalgia for the Old South in Post-Civil War Plantation Reminiscences". pp. 105–136. JSTOR 27648653. 
  11. ↑ Goldfield, David R. (2004). Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. p. 21. ISBN 9780807129609. https://books.google.com/books?id=WbeUjck6XNQC&q=%22James+Battle+Avirett%22&pg=PA21. Retrieved December 26, 2015. 

External links[]

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