Ashe, Samuel A. (Samuel A'Court), 1840-1938

Confederate Army officer, author, and editor.

From the description of Correspondence, 1856-1950; (bulk 1858-1888). (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 19105868

Samuel A'Court Ashe, Confederate soldier, lawyer, historian, Democratic Party politician, and editor, grew up near Wilmington, N.C, and spent much of his life in Raleigh. He served with the Confederate Army throughout the Civil War, rising to the rank of captain. He wrote about North Carolina history, the Civil War, and the post-war South.

From the description of Samuel A. Ashe papers, 1855-1938. WorldCat record id: 57679701

Samuel A'Court Ashe (1840-1938), Confederate soldier, historian, and editor, grew up near Wilmington, N.C., and spent much of his life in Raleigh. His father, William Shepperd Ashe (1814-1862), served in the North Carolina Senate and as a member of the United States Congress. Samuel A. Ashe married Hannah Emerson Willard in 1871 and had nine children, one of whom was William Willard Ashe, who became a noted botanist and worked for the United States Forest Service.

Samuel A. Ashe attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he met future naval historian and life-long friend Alfred Thayer Mahan. Some of their correspondence was compiled in Letters of Alfred Thayer Mahan to Samuel A'Court Ashe, 1858-1859, edited by Rosa Pendleton Chiles. Ashe served with the Confederate Army throughout the Civil War, rising to the rank of captain. He became a lawyer, served in the North Carolina House of Representatives, worked for several government departments, was active in the Democratic Party, and was an editor for News and Observer of Raleigh and other newspapers.

Throughout his life Ashe wrote about the history of North Carolina and the Civil War. His publications include History of North Carolina, the first volume of which was published in 1908, the second volume in 1925. He also edited the Biographical History of North Carolina, an eight-volume set that was published between 1905 and 1917. In later life, he was concerned with proving the constitutionality of the South's secession from the United States and wrote a pamphlet entitled A Southern View of the Invasion of the Southern States and the War of 1861-1865 in 1935.

From the guide to the Samuel A. Ashe Papers, 1855-1938, (Southern Historical Collection)