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Jesse Talbot Bernard was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1829. He taught school and practiced law in various locales in Florida. While teaching in the Tallahassee area he married Mary Elizabeth Bradford, daughter of Thomas Bradford, owner of the Pine Hill Plantation in Leon County.
In 1861 Bernard entered the Provisional Army of the Confederacy as a Captain and Assistant Quartermaster for the Eighth Florida Infantry Regiment. He served in that capacity for most of the Civil War until his assignment to General Robert E. Lee's staff where he remained until the end of the war. After the war, Bernard returned to Tallahassee and resumed a career in law, real estate, and cotton merchandizing. He served as Leon County Judge (1869-1873) and mayor of Tallahassee (1876). He died in 1909 and is buried in the Tallahassee city cemetery.
Summary:
This collection contains journals, letters, photographs, and reminiscences of J. T. Bernard and his family. Most of the letters are from Bernard to his family and wife, Mary, in Florida and give some account of the nature of Bernard's service during the Civil War and the conditions in the theater of operations in Virginia and Maryland.
The records include a transcription of a portion of Bernard's journal from September 1842; an original journal dated 1843 to 1846; an original school/law record book, 1850-1855; original Civil War letters and photographs, with transcripts; and an original 1881 autobiography of J. T. Bernard, with transcript. There is also a transcription of "Journal Six" of J.T. Bernard, which covers 1856-1861, 1883-1884, and 1891. In addition, there are related materials on the Bernard family and the history of Tallahassee.
Finding Aids:
Folder listing available. 0
Additional Physical Form:
Transcript.
Reproduction Note:
Transcript.
Location of Originals/Duplicates:
Jesse Talbot Bernard, Journal Six, 1856-1891; located at Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Associated Materials:
Language Notes:
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Publication Note:
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Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Bernard family. Bradford family.
Confederate States of America. Army. --Florida Infantry Regiment, 8th.
Civil War (U.S.)
Diaries. aat Reminiscences. aat
Leon County (Fla.) Tallahassee (Fla.) United States History Civil War, 1861-1865
for detailed listing.