Biography/History:

John Thomas Lawless, son of William and Roseanne McCourt Lawless, was born in Mississippi around 1843. Lawless and siblings James (b. ca. 1840), Mary (b. ca. 1846), B. A. (b. ca. 1848), Elizabeth (b. ca. 1849), Roseanne (b. ca. 1851), and C. C. (b. December 1859) resided on the family farm near Paulding, Jasper County, Mississippi, in 1860. He married Elizabeth Ann Brogan, daughter of James Wesley and Katharine Overstreet Brogan of Jasper County, around 1861. Lawless enlisted with Company F, Sixteenth Regiment, Mississippi Infantry, Confederate States Army, on March 15, 1862. Elizabeth Brogan Lawless gave birth to a son, Thomas Peter (b. December 31, 1864), while her husband was serving in the army. John Thomas Lawless died in a hospital at Richmond, Virginia, in October 1864.

Thomas Peter Lawless’s second wife was Dixie Webb. She was the daughter of Albert Gallatin Webb, who served in the Seventh Regiment, Mississippi Infantry, Confederate States Army, and Nannie H. Regan Webb.

Scope and Content:

This collection contains the correspondence of John Thomas Lawless; the papers of his in-laws, the Brogan family of Clarke, Jasper, and Tunica counties, Mississippi; and the papers of Albert Gallatin Webb of Columbia, Marion County, Mississippi.

The John Thomas Lawless letters were written between June and September 1864, while he was serving in the Confederate army. He wrote nine letters to his wife, Elizabeth Ann Brogan Lawless. Of interest is a September 20, 1864, letter in which Lawless refers to John Daly, a mutual friend who was suspected of intentionally shooting himself in the arm. All of Lawless’s letters relate war news and note the health of men serving in his unit. His last letter was written to a friend, Mack, on September 3, 1864.

The Brogan family papers consist of correspondence, a receipt, and a promissory note. The correspondence includes news of allied family members and friends. In an August 5, 1864, letter, John Thomas Lawless, son-in-law of James Wesley Brogan, states that although his military unit is apprehensive about the Atlanta campaign they are nevertheless in fine spirits. Another letter was written by William Burke advising an unnamed recipient, probably James Wesley Brogan, of the death of his son, Peter Emmett Brogan, who died in a military hospital in Tullahoma, Tennessee, on November 10, 1862. Also included are an 1865 steamer-passage receipt and an 1869 promissory note.

The Albert Gallatin Webb materials consist of a letter, three newspaper obituaries, and genealogical information. He wrote the December 29, 1861, letter to his mother, Elizabeth Hammond Webb, while serving in the Confederate army. Webb notes the conditions at Camp Lovell near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and describes his efforts to force the captain of his unit to resign. The obituaries are for Albert Gallatin Webb, who died on September 23, 1926. Included with the obituaries is a paragraph of donor-supplied genealogical information on Webb and his parents.

Series Identification:

1. John Thomas Lawless Correspondence. 1864. 1 folder.

   Box 1, folder 1

2. Brogan Family Papers. 1861-1869; n.d. 1 folder.

   Box 1, folder 2

3. Albert Gallatin Webb Papers. 1861; 1926; n.d. 2 folders.

   Box 1, folders 3-4