Guide to the Archival Collections.pdf - Missouri History Museum

charged with operating a distillery there. He joined the firm of Chouteau and MacKenzie that
same year, and remained until the company dissolved in 1841; was associated with P. Chouteau,
Jr., & Co., until 1850 when he continued his business as a commission merchant. Invested
heavily in lands in Missouri, Illinois, and Minnesota.
Business, personal, and family correspondence; accounts (1842-1857) with business firms in
St. Louis; legal documents; real estate papers (1840-1884) of St. Louis properties; bills of sale
(1828-1841) for slaves; papers (1849) of a sawmill operation in St. Louis; contract (1847) for
building a wharf boat, St. Louis; steamboat shipping orders; and bills. Correspondents include
John Jacob Astor, Benjamin F. Baker, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Ramsey Crooks, Alexander
Faribault, William Laidlaw, D.A. MacKenzie, and H.H. Sibley. Additional materials include
papers relating to the lead business (early 1840s), later family papers, and Civil War materials.
Cite as: Kenneth MacKenzie Papers, Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.
A1014
McKinley, Emilie R. (1833- ).
Diary, 1863-1864. 1 volume
Miss Emilie R. McKinley was a teacher from Tennessee who lived on a large plantation (85
slaves) owned by a widow named Ellen D. Batchelor (1826-1893), wife of Napoleon B.
Batchelor (1815-1850), and mother of Thomas B. Batchelor (1838-1868) and George B.
Batchelor (1839-1908), both of whom served with the Confederate army during the Civil War.
The Batchelor plantation was located three miles south of Bovina, Mississippi, and six miles
east-southeast of Vicksburg.
The McKinley narrative, dated May 18, 1863-March 18, 1864, starts the day before the
beginning of the siege of Vicksburg, when Union troops crossed the Big Black River and began
surrounding the city. McKinley's diary relates rumors of the event and the hopes for relief that
were commonplace in Vicksburg and the surrounding area, and the reluctance to accept the fact
of its fall. Written from a civilian point of view, much of the diary is devoted to describing the
interaction between area residents and the occupying Union troops. Union soldiers appeared
frequently at the Batchelor residence and, according to McKinley, were continually demanding
food, and appear to have taken most of what was available in the way of livestock, grain, flour,
sugar, etc., as well as jewelry and other valuables. McKinley also writes of more social contacts
between residents and soldiers and recounts occasions where soldiers demanded meals at the
Batchelor home. The diary also notes a great deal of destruction in the vicinity: the burning of
cotton gins, destruction of homes and barns, much of which McKinley saw while traveling
through the region to visit friends. McKinley also describes events following the fall of
Vicksburg, including frequent contact with high-ranking Union officers such as Generals Grant,
MacPherson, Osterhaus, Sherman, and McClernand, when area residents registered complaints
and made, sometimes successful, appeals for assistance in recovering pilfered goods and
livestock, or guards to protect residents from unrestricted looting. McKinley also addresses the
relationships between former slaves and the slave owners and characterizing them as uncertain
and unstable. Finally, she relates that the Union control of the region was not absolute, as
evidenced by occasional contact with Confederate scouting parties in the region and reports of an
occasional skirmish.
Diary is published in Gordon A. Cotton, editor, From the Pen of a She-Rebel: The Civil War
Diary of Emilie Riley McKinley, University of South Carolina Press, 2001.
Cite as: Emilie R. McKinley Diary, Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.
A1015