Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from Clarence Derrick Letter must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Alternate Form Available

Part of this collection has been digitized and is available online .

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Clarence Derrick Letter, Ms2012-014, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection was purchased by Special Collections in May 2012. An additional item (oath) was purchased in 2014.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Clarence Derrick Letter was completed in May 2012. Additional description was completed in July 2017.

Biographical Note

Clarence Derrick was born in Washington, DC, in September 1837. He attended the U.S. Military Academy from 1857 to 1861, graduated in June 1861, and was promoted briefly into the U.S. Army. He resigned his Corps of Engineers commission and was dismissed in July 1861. He enlisted in the Confederate Army almost immediately. He worked as General John Floyd's adjutant with the 51st Regiment, Virginia Infantry. The regiment was later reorganized as the 23rd Battalion, Virginia Infantry. Derrick was a Lieutenant Colonel and in command of the battalion by April 1862. He was captured at Winchester, September 1864 and released from Fort Delaware June 1865.

Following the war, he was a lawyer (and possibly a professor of mathematics) in Marion, Alabama. He continued to practice law in Greensboro, Alabama, and eventually established a cotton plantation. By 1880, he was livingin Greensboro with his first wife's (Fannie Peay) family. After 1900, he appears to have retired to Pennsylvania. He died in 1907, while on a visit to Greensboro, survived by his third wife, Alice Paschall Darlington Derrick. He did not have any children.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of a single letter from Lt. Colonel Clarence Derrick (1837-1907), 23rd Battalion, Virginia Infantry, to President Andrew Johnson (which Derrick misspells as "Johnston"), dated June 17, 1865. Derrick writes to petition his release from Fort Delaware, following the end of the war and his signing the amnesty oath. Derrick was released on June 24, 1865, though whether because of the petition or not is unknown. The letter was forwarded on Derrick's behalf to President Johnson by Brigadier General Albin Schoepf, commander of Fort Delaware.

The collection also includes an Oath of Allegiance signed by Derrick at Fort Delaware, June 1865.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War
• Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865