Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Cordelia Lewis Scales Letters (Z/0603).
Creator/Collector: Cordelia Lewis Scales.
Date(s): 1861-1863.
Size: 0.20 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff, unknown.
Provenance: Gift of unknown donor.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Cordelia Lewis Scales Letters (Z/0603), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

Cordelia Lewis Scales

Cordelia “Delia” Lewis Scales was born on July 18, 1843 in Orange County, Virginia, the daughter of Ann Meriwether Minor (1803-1874) and Peter Scales (1790-1869). The couple had seven children, all born at the home Woodlawn in Virginia: Ellen (1828-1850), John Laidly (1837-1852), Mary (1830-1847), Joseph Watkins (1832-1896), Henry Minor (1835-1868), Lucy Minor (1839-1933), and Dabney Minor (1842-1920).

Cordelia was a student at the State Female Institute in Memphis. Probably because of her illness, she left school early in the spring of 1861 and returned to the family home Oakland. Although no battles were fought on Mississippi soil in the first year of the Civil War, her sons answered the call to duty, and won military distinction often. At home, Cordelia kept an observing eye on the news from the battle front and periodically wrote Loulie. Her schoolmate at the State Female Institute.

Cordelia married Benjamin Cottrell Gray (1847-1912) on December 31, 1866. The couple had the following children: Benjamin Cottrell Gray (1871–1888), Harriet Gray (1875–1930), Ellen Gray (1877–1952), Minor Scales Gray (1878–1912), John Maury Gray (1881–1946), Lillian Louis Gray (1883–1962), and Thomas Cottrell Gray (1885–1905).

Cordelia Lewis Scales Gray died on February 27, 1915, at the age of 70, and she was buried in the Cottrell-Gray Family Cemetery in Hudsonville, Marshall County.

 

Scope and Content Note:

Letters (typewritten copies) written by Cordelia Lewis Scales, who lived eight miles north of Holly Springs. Cardelia Scales was born on July 18, 1843, in Virginia, and on December 31, 1866, married Ben Cottrell Gray. The letters depict the life and general morale of the civilian population during the Civil War. Four of these letters were included in Percy L. Rainwater (ed.), "The Civil War Letters of Cordelia Scales," in Journal of Mississippi History, 1 (July, 1939), p. 169-181, which produced seven letters covering the period from May 19, 1861, to February 18, 1866.