The Wise family members who are represented in these papers are part of a large family whose influence stretched from Virginia to Washington DC and included politics, law and public service. Their roots in Accomack County extend to the early 17th century.
Henry Alexander Wise was born in Accomack County, Virginia on December 3, 1806 to Major John and Sarah Corbin Cropper Wise. He was orphaned at an early age and raised by his aunt and uncle, Major and Mrs. John Custis. After graduating from Washington College in Pennsylvania, he studied law and opened a practice in Nashville, Tennessee. He returned to Virginia in 1830 and, gaining a reputation as a formidable speaker, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832, where he served for 12 years. President John Tyler appointed Wise Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Brazil in 1844; he was recalled in 1847. Elected governor of Virginia in 1853, he served one term, and with his fiery oratory, swayed Virginia delegates to secede from the Union in 1861. His political status gained him a generalship with the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Resuming civilian life, he took up his law practice in Richmond, Virginia. Wise married three times. He died on September 12, 1876.
George D. Wise represents another branch of the family. Born in 1831 to Tully Robinson Wise and Margaret Douglas Pettitt Wise (they were double second cousins) on the family’s plantation, Wise was educated in Indiana and studied law at the College of William and Mary. When news broke of Virginia’s secession from the Union in 1861, he abandoned his Richmond law practice to join his five brothers in service. President Jefferson Davis commissioned him a lieutenant in the Confederate States Army. Assigned as an adjutant to Company S, 1st Regiment, Kentucky Infantry, Wise took part in Virginia campaigns, including the Battles of Dranesville and Yorktown. When the regiment’s term of service expired in the spring of 1862, Wise was temporarily attached to serve as aide to his uncle, Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, amid the Seven Days Battles near Richmond. His remaining years were spent on the western front where he served as adjutant and aide-de-camp to Major General Carter Stevenson until the war’s end in April 1865.
Although nepotism may have gained Wise his appointment, by all accounts he proved to be an excellent soldier. Promoted to captain, he quickly gained the trust of his superiors who valued his judgment and discreet manner. His commanders counted on him to slip through enemy lines to ferry confidential messages between camps, including most famously, the last dispatches of General John Pemberton to General Joseph Johnston during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. In official reports superiors described Captain Wise as gallant, brave, bold and intelligent. He was gravely wounded on May 15, 1864 at the Battle of Resaca and returned to Richmond to convalesce. He joined his unit five months later in Alabama where it would soon cross the Tennessee River to engage Union troops at the Battles of Franklin and Nashville. Captain Wise surrendered with General Joseph Johnston’s army in April 1865 and took the oath of loyalty to the Union in May. Returning to civilian life and his law practice, Wise was elected as Commonwealth attorney of the city of Richmond in 1870, where he prosecuted local criminals until he successfully ran for Congress in 1880, where he served until he was defeated in 1894. He never married and died February 4, 1908.
Other individuals with materials in the collection include John C. Wise, John Sergeant Wise, James D. Wise, Sarah E. Wise, Peyton Wise and Barton Wise. John C. Wise was Henry A. Wise’s brother. John Sergeant Wise was the son of Henry A. and his second wife, Sarah Sergeant. Peyton Wise was George D. Wise’s brother and fellow Confederate veteran. James D. Wise is identified as George D. Wise’s nephew, son of James Madison Wise. Barton Wise was a grandson of Henry A. Wise who worked on a biography of his grandfather.
The Wise Family Papers chronicle a prominent Virginia family, whose members included a governor and congressman who both served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. The papers represent several generations and branches of the family and span the years 1832 to 1943, with the bulk of materials dated 1844 to 1865. Types of materials included in the collection are Civil War-era diaries, personal and military correspondence, handwritten manuscripts, federal government dispatches, published political speeches, genealogical notes and a few newspapers and periodicals. The papers document a paramount focus on family honor and highlight family members’ propensity toward intemperate behavior in dealing with both relatives and outsiders. The breadth of the collection is spotty, concentrating on certain subjects or aspects of individual experiences. However the papers reflect the actions, thoughts and deeds of a slave-owning southern family whose lives were deeply influenced by the sweeping conflagration of war overtaking the nation.
Arranged in three series. The first series concerns Henry Alexander Wise, 1844-1895; the second, George Douglas Wise, 1861-1901 and; the third series, with items dating from 1832-1943, highlights various Wise family documents. In addition to three manuscript boxes, the personal diaries of George C. Wise have been preserved in seperate book boxes.
This series contains dispatches, financial and ministry records and correspondence related to H.A. Wise’s position as United States Envoy to Brazil. Handwritten rough drafts of dispatches, 1844-1847, directed to the Secretary of State, report on all aspects of relations between the two countries as well as administrative affairs of the ministry. Another set of files, 1861-1865 reflect Wise’s military stint in the Civil War and is composed of orders, memoranda, reports and communications, accounts and correspondence. Letters document the many requests, favors, and other matters that Brigadier General Wise attended to because of his senior ranking. Family letters, 1848-1868, nd, touch on personal events and matters unrelated to Wise’s professional career. Also included are soldier’s handwritten accounts of the Siege of Vicksburg and other events, used by Confederate veteran and author George S. Bernard in his book,
The highlight of this series is George Wise’s diaries that he kept during his military service with the Confederate States of America. They describe battlefield engagements, troop movements, interactions with superiors, camp life, news and politics of the day, weather and updates on family members also in service. Notable entries include his part in ferrying messages between commanders during the Siege of Vicksburg in late June and July, 1863, his wounding at the Battle of Resaca on November 15, 1864 and his description of the Franklin-Nashville campaign.
Other materials in this series include a letter from General John C. Pemberton, 1874, asking for Wise’s consideration regarding Pemberton’s conduct during the Siege of Vicksburg, family correspondence, published congressional speeches, legal briefs and a humorous account of George Wise and friends meeting President Lincoln at the White House inaugural reception in March 1861.
Series III comprises miscellaneous items created or kept by various family members. Included are copies of Confederate War Department correspondence regarding Henry A. Wise and used by his grandson, Barton Wise, while he was writing a biography of Wise. A folder of Samuel C. Upham’s counterfeit Confederate currency, produced during the Civil War, should also be noted. The remainder of the series is composed of family correspondence, published speeches, printed materials and genealogy notes.
This material is open for research without restriction under the conditions of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. Records may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research, however, as with all materials in the History Center, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection. Material in the Wise Family Papers, 1832-1943 [bulk 1844-1865] may be photocopied, but because this material is a permanent part of the History Center's collections, researchers are advised to photocopy with care, using only the edge copier/scanner. Digital cameras can be used to capture images of materials however, the use of a flash is prohibited.
The Wise Family Papers were distributed among a collection given to the library by local resident Gertrude Colles. Colles was a neighbor of the Wise/Miller families. Katherine Wise (1853-1940) was the daughter of Henry Augustus Wise, and she married Jacob Miller (1847-1918). Their daughter, Dorothea Miller Post, (1878-1947) was one of the last residents to live at Macculloch Hall.
Wise Family Papers, 1832-1943 [bulk 1844-1865]. North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library. Morristown, NJ.
Processed in 2012-2013 by C. Turkington. Encoded by North Jersey History and Genealogy Center Archivist, 2013.