ANDERSON COUNTY — To celebrate its 25th anniversary on Oct. 25, the Anderson County Museum has borrowed pieces of the area’s history for display.

When the museum opens up on Oct. 25, three new displays will be available for the first time at the museum: Barnard E. Bee’s sword, on loan from the South Carolina State Museum; the Orr Rifles Flag and the 371st Flag, on loan from Confederate Relic Room and Miltary Museum in Columbia, S.C.; and Manse Jolly’s family letters, on loan from the Anderson University library.

Each of the displays provides insight to Anderson County and its place in South Carolina and United States history, if not world history, according to officials. The Independent-Mail will look at one exhibit per week between now and the museum’s anniversary.

Manse Jolly, an Anderson man who is said to have killed as many as 30 Union soldiers following the Civil War, is to some a hero, and others a terror.

But his letters to his family and friends show a different side of Jolly, a man far away from his home.

Jolly went to fight during the Civil War with his six brothers. When he returned to Anderson, it was with only one brother. The two were met not only by their widowed mother, but also a garrison of Yankees on her property.

Jolly vowed, it is said, to kill one Yankee for each of his brothers. Accounts differ, but many say he had 23 notches in his gun when he escaped to Texas, and that he may have killed as many as 12 others on the way to his new home.

But Anderson, it appears, was never far from his mind. Letters to Jolly’s family and friends show a different side of him, according to museum officials.

“I think these show a more personal and human side,” said Alison Hinman, Anderson County Museum curator. “It shows the way he misses his family. … To me, it shows a side of the man that isn’t really talked about.”

Letters exchanged between Jolly and his family talk about his life in Texas and his fear of being caught.

“At one point, he talks about the new postmaster in Pendleton and how his sister should now address his letters to avoid being caught,” Hinman said.

The letters also show that Jolly died in Texas. After a two-year silence, a period in which it is thought Jolly settled down, married and ran a farm, a friend of Jolly’s wrote to the family to tell them that Jolly had drowned with his horse in a flooded river.

“It’s a fascinating look at the man behind the legend,” Hinman said.

Anderson University asked Hinman to transcribe the letters. The university has loaned the letters to the museum for the anniversary celebration.

The correspondence will be on display until March 30.