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Local figure

William Horn Battle

William Horn Battle moved his family to Chapel Hill in 1843 and in 1845 became the university's professor of law, teaching until 1868 and again from 1876 until his death in 1879. Enslaved men, among them Ben, Harry and Billy, built and worked at his house beside the campus.

Source: UNC Libraries: Slaves of Faculty and Townspeople (Slavery and the Making of the University)

1802–1879 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

2 works about William Horn Battle are indexed here.

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William Horn Battle, 1854
William Horn Battle, 1854

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 31 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Students James K. Polk and William Horn Battle board at the Tenney farmhouse The one-story frame house at 381 Tenney Circle, a dwelling on John B. Tenney's farm northeast of the campus, was probably standing by 1818 and keeps much of its early interior. James K. Polk of the class of 1818 and William Horn Battle of the class of 1820 took room and board there and walked two miles to classes. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 16
  2. The legislature elects J. R. J. Daniel, Hugh McQueen and William H. Battle trustees of the university The General Assembly elected J. R. J. Daniel of Halifax, Hugh McQueen of Chatham and William H. Battle of Franklin as trustees of the University of North Carolina, filling vacancies on the board since the last session. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · The Harbinger (Chapel Hill), January 9, 1834, p. 2
  3. William Horn Battle moves his family to Chapel Hill and buys a house beside the campus Judge William H. Battle moved his family from Raleigh to Chapel Hill in 1843 so his sons could attend the university. He bought a house near the campus and enlarged it, adding quarters for the people the family enslaved. People: Kemp Plummer BattleSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Slaves of Faculty and Townspeople (Slavery and the Making of the University)
  4. Alumni gather at Chapel Hill and organize the university's Alumni Association Graduates meeting at commencement organized the Alumni Association with former governor Morehead in the chair. At the 1844 meeting they adopted a constitution and chose Morehead as the association's first president. People: William A. Graham, Charles Phillips, William Horn Battle, Charles ManlySearch the index · Internet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1907), full text
  5. William H. Battle opens a law school at Chapel Hill After moving to Chapel Hill in 1843, Judge William H. Battle began teaching law in his office, a two-room building in his yard. His notice in the Raleigh Register of July 7, 1843 set the school to open on July 15, "at the University," at $100 for a course of twelve months or more or $10 a month. He became the university's professor of law in 1845.Search the index · Internet Archive: Fannie Memory Farmer, "Legal Education in North Carolina, 1820-1860", North Carolina Historical Review 28 (1951), p. 282
  6. William Horn Battle becomes the university's professor of law After teaching law from his office in Chapel Hill, Battle was professor of law at the university by 1845, and the university began offering the bachelor of law degree.Search the index · NCpedia: Law Schools
  7. Enslaved workers build and tend the Battle household in Chapel Hill Letters between Lucy and William H. Battle in March 1845 describe enslaved men at their Chapel Hill house: Ben planted shrubs and flowers, Harry worked on the outbuildings and was hired out, and Billy was also at work. The well-house, servants' houses, barn and bath house were built almost entirely by enslaved labor. People: David L. SwainSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Slaves of Faculty and Townspeople (Slavery and the Making of the University)
  8. William Mercer Green pledges fifteen enslaved people and his Bolin Creek land for a loan To secure 2,500 dollars borrowed from John H. Bryan, with David L. Swain and Duncan Cameron as his sureties, William Mercer Green conveyed to William H. Battle in trust his land on Bolin Creek near Chapel Hill and fifteen enslaved people: Jenny, Nancy, Lucy, Frances, Ellen, Celia, Anne, Julia, Rachel, Margaret, Peter, Sam, Aaron, Cain and Robert. If the debt went unpaid, they were to be advertised in the Hillsborough Recorder and sold at Chapel Hill to the highest bidder. People: William Mercer Green, William Horn Battle, David L. Swain, Duncan CameronOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 32, p. 118 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 32/118, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 32/118, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  9. A boys' preparatory school meets in Samuel Phillips's law office Samuel Phillips's small stuccoed law office on East Franklin Street reportedly housed a preparatory school for boys in 1847. Later in the century William Horn Battle taught law classes in the same building. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 36
  10. The university's law department lists eleven students The university catalogue for 1847-1848 listed eleven law students, and that for 1854-1855 twelve. Most were shown rooming at "Miss Hillyard's," and the professor of law and the Independent Class were exempt from the ordinary college rules. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · Internet Archive: Fannie Memory Farmer, "Legal Education in North Carolina, 1820-1860", North Carolina Historical Review 28 (1951), p. 283
  11. Zebulon Vance studies law at Chapel Hill Vance entered the University of North Carolina early in 1851 and spent the rest of the year at Chapel Hill studying law under Judge William H. Battle and Samuel F. Phillips. He obtained his law licence in December 1851 and set up an office at Asheville early in 1852. People: William Horn Battle, Samuel Field PhillipsSearch the index · NCpedia: Vance, Zebulon Baird (Research Branch, NC Office of Archives and History)
  12. Richard H. Battle teaches at the university as a tutor After graduating with first honors in 1854, Richard H. Battle stayed in Chapel Hill as a tutor of mathematics and Greek until 1858, reading law with his father, the law professor William H. Battle, and serving on the vestry of the Chapel of the Cross. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · NCpedia: Battle, Richard Henry
Show all 31 dated events
  1. Samuel F. Phillips teaches in the university law school From 1854 to 1859 Phillips taught in the university law school at Chapel Hill. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · NCpedia: Phillips, Samuel Field
  2. The university confers degrees on sixty-nine graduates After the annual report was read on commencement day, the university conferred degrees on sixty-nine members of the graduating class, the faculty giving each a bound Bible, and awarded master's degrees in course to about twenty earlier graduates. Governor Bragg and nine other trustees attended. People: Thomas Bragg, David L. Swain, William A. Graham, William Horn Battle, Charles Manly, Giles MebaneSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Gazette, June 6, 1857, p. 2
  3. Samuel F. Phillips closes his law school and shares the office with Judge Battle Phillips, who had taught law in his Franklin Street office since 1854, closed the school, went back to practice, and shared the building with Judge William Horn Battle. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 107
  4. Trustees allow students to be excused from chapel worship Answering a memorial from the Episcopal convention that compulsory chapel on Sunday violated conscience, the trustees adopted Judge Matthias E. Manly's scheme letting the president excuse students whose parents lived in the village, who belonged to another church in town, or who or whose parents objected in writing. Morning and evening prayers stayed compulsory. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 714
  5. The Episcopal diocesan convention meets at the Chapel of the Cross The forty-sixth annual convention of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina met in the Chapel Hill church during the war. The rector, Francis W. Hilliard, and the parish's lay delegates William H. Battle, W. P. Mallett, A. Mickle and Manuel Fetter all attended. People: William Horn Battle, William P. Mallett, Andrew Mickle, Manuel FetterArchibald Henderson, The Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross at Chapel Hill (1938), scan p. 52
  6. Walter Clark resigns his Confederate commission and graduates first in his class at the university When his regiment came back to North Carolina in February 1863, Walter Clark resigned his commission as a Confederate officer and went to the university, where he studied under David L. Swain and William H. Battle. He graduated first in his class in June 1864. People: David L. Swain, William Horn BattleSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Walter McKenzie Clark, 1846-1924 (from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, by David Clark and Charles W. Eagles)
  7. Wartime woodcutting strips the university forests To ease the faculty's hardship the trustees let professors, and the widow of tutor George B. Johnston, cut firewood from university land, extending the privilege in December 1864 with Bursar Fetter to mark trees. Neighbors cut freely as well, and many acres near the village were stripped of oaks and hickories. People: David L. Swain, William Horn Battle, Manuel FetterDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 740
  8. Wilson Caldwell walks out with President Swain under a white flag to meet approaching Union troops When Union troops approached Chapel Hill in 1865, Wilson Caldwell walked out under a white flag with President David L. Swain, Judge W. H. Battle and others to meet the incoming cavalry and seek protection for the town and the university. People: William Horn Battle, David L. SwainSearch the index · Carolina Story: Wilson Caldwell (1841-1898), Slavery and the University
  9. Bodies of Junius and Wesley Lewis Battle brought home for burial The bodies of Corporal Junius C. Battle, mortally wounded at South Mountain, and Lieutenant Wesley Lewis Battle, killed at Gettysburg, sons of Judge William H. Battle and former students, were brought home to Chapel Hill. The village turned out to meet them, and they lay side by side in the Episcopal church before burial. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, William Horn BattleSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 744
  10. Chapel Hill farmers organize the Chapel Hill Agricultural Society Citizens of Chapel Hill and the surrounding country met with Judge William H. Battle in the chair and organized the Chapel Hill Agricultural Society, to meet monthly, with George W. Purefoy as president and A. Mickle as treasurer. Dues were twenty-five cents a year, and members were to read essays and look into farm problems such as insects in young corn. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 5, 1867, p. 2
  11. Judge William H. Battle pays off the Chapel of the Cross rectory lot Largely through Battle's efforts the parish had bought property for a rectory sometime between 1851 and 1868. In 1868 he paid the $500 still owed on it with interest, and in October 1878 the vestry agreed to repay him $600 at six percent from the start of 1879.Search the index · Archibald Henderson, The Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross at Chapel Hill (1938), scan p. 54
  12. Cornelia Phillips Spencer describes the emptied campus and village In a letter to the Sentinel written under the Old Poplar, Spencer described the shut buildings and reported that nearly twenty of Chapel Hill's leading families were leaving and six places now sold liquor openly. She named the departing faculty, among them Judge William H. Battle, and called the town the Deserted Village of the South. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, William Horn BattleDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 29
  13. Josiah Turner Jr. asks Justices Dick and Settle for a bench warrant against Holden, Kirk and Bergen After Kirk's men arrested him at Hillsborough, Josiah Turner Jr. filed an affidavit and applied to Justices Dick and Settle of the state supreme court for a bench warrant against Governor Holden and Colonels Kirk and Bergen. The justices had counsel argue whether a warrant could issue against the governor and whether the colonels could be taken outside the insurrection counties, with Mr. Bailey on one side and William H. Battle on the other, according to Battle's testimony before the Senate committee on February 13, 1871; he read his argument from the Daily Sentinel of October 7, 1870. People: Josiah Turner Jr., W. W. Holden, William Horn BattleU.S. Senate, Select Committee, Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States (1871), p. 162
  14. Alumni meet in Raleigh to plan the university's revival At the invitation of trustees led by Superintendent Alexander McIver, fifty-five alumni met in the state Senate chamber with B. F. Moore in the chair. Their committee proposed that the alumni association nominate a new board for the Board of Education to appoint, but most of the 1868 trustees did not resign and the plan lapsed. People: Alexander McIver, William A. Graham, William Horn Battle, Richmond Mumford Pearson, Bartholomew F. MooreDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 46
  15. The new trustees sue Solomon Pool and Alexander McIver at Orange Superior Court and win possession of the university in the Supreme Court At the May 1874 term of Orange Superior Court the new board brought one action against Superintendent Alexander McIver, who held the university's seal and books and had agreed to a friendly test suit, and another against Solomon Pool for the buildings. Judge Albion W. Tourgee ruled against the trustees; John W. Graham and James A. Graham of Hillsborough argued for them without fee, as did B. F. Moore and William H. Battle on appeal in June 1874. At its January term 1875 the state Supreme Court decided for the university on every point, and possession passed to Andrew Mickle, the board's agent, with the seal, books and papers going to Treasurer Kemp Battle. People: Solomon Pool, Kemp Plummer Battle, Alexander McIver, John W. Graham, Andrew Mickle, Albion W. Tourgee, Bartholomew F. Moore, James Augustus Graham, William Horn BattleInternet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912), full text
  16. The Dialectic and Philanthropic societies meet again On the evening of the reopening celebration the two literary societies were revived, the Dialectic called together by its last secretary, Thomas M. Argo, with Judge William H. Battle as temporary president. William L. Saunders, who had kept the Philanthropic Society's books since its last meeting in 1868, called that society together. People: William Horn Battle, William L. SaundersDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 98
  17. Kemp Plummer Battle buys his father's Chapel Hill house and names it Senlac Returning to Chapel Hill in 1876 to become university president, Battle bought the family house from his father, added a one-story wing on each side and named it Senlac. The house stands on Battle Lane. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Slaves of Faculty and Townspeople (Slavery and the Making of the University)
  18. William Horn Battle returns to Chapel Hill to teach law Battle had left for Raleigh in 1868 when Reconstruction politics disrupted the university. When his law school reopened at Chapel Hill in January 1877, while his son Kemp was president, he returned as professor of law, and he taught until he resigned in January 1879, shortly before his death that March. People: Kemp Plummer BattleSearch the index · Catalogue of the Trustees, Faculty and Students of the University of North Carolina, 1876-77 (1877): faculty list and Law School (with Battle, History of the University, vol. II, pp. 126, 167-169) · Also: UNC Libraries: Slaves of Faculty and Townspeople
  19. Judge William H. Battle dies at Chapel Hill William Horn Battle, former justice of the state Supreme Court, compiler of Battle's Revisal and long the university's professor of law, died at the Chapel Hill home of his son, President Kemp P. Battle, aged 76. After a memorial service in the university chapel on March 16, students and townspeople escorted his body out of town; it lay in state in the rotunda in Raleigh, and he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery after services at Christ Church. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, Joseph Blount CheshireSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Ledger, March 22, 1879, p. 2

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as William Horn Battle, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Indexed works

Works about or by William Horn Battle. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

David L. Swain papers, 1807-1877 (bulk 1833-1868)

Swain, David L. (David Lowry), 1801-1868 · 1807

David L. Swain, 1801 to 1868, served as governor of North Carolina and then as president of the university at Chapel Hill. His papers span 1807 to 1877 with the bulk from 1833 to 1868. Subjects include Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Elisha Mitchell, W. W. Holden and Thomas Ruffin, and cover state politics, railroads, and records of enslaved people. Microfilm reels were made in 1949 and 1974.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

David L. Swain (1801-1868) Papers

Swain, David L. (David Lowry), 1801-1868 · 1763

Papers of David L. Swain, 1763 to 1895. A Buncombe County lawyer and legislator, Swain was governor from 1832 to 1835, president of the university at Chapel Hill from 1835 to 1867 and a founder of the North Carolina Historical Society. Letters come from business partners D. L. Barringer and Nicholas W. Woodfin and from relatives in Georgia, Texas and the navy. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.84.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

State Archives of NC

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 4 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Records of enslaved people

2 records, 1844 to 1846, name William Horn Battle as a party to the sale, gift, trust or other transfer of enslaved people. Each record lists the people named in it, with their ages and family ties.

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Deeds

7 deeds, 1843 to 1873, in the county’s deed books name William Horn Battle as a party, from Mark Chilton’s published abstracts. Each links to the deed-book page at the Register of Deeds.

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Wills

One will or paper in the county’s will books names William Horn Battle, from Ruth Herndon Shields’s abstracts. Each shows the role and the year.

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Picture: William Horn Battle, 1854. Public domain. Photograph by Cornish, Lamport & Co.; books.google.com; via Wikimedia Commons

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