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Ora W. Harvey
John M. Jackson
James B. Jordan
Henry H. Maley
Christopher C. McKinney
Meek Family Correspondence
morgan Family Correspondence
James Parkison
Peed Family Letters
G. Julian Pratt
John Pugh
Harrison E. Randall
Read Family Correspondence
Samuel T. Reeves
Harrison E. savage
Shriver Family Correspondence
Shriver Family Correspondence
Sillers-Holmes Family Correspondence
Taylor Family Correspondence
Thomas Family Correspondence
Herbert Benezet Tyson
Isaac Ira White
Diaries and Journals
Miscellaneous Manuscripts

  (transcriptions only)
Technical Details
Manuscripts of the American Civil War
Introduction

What follows is a list of Civil War related letter groups and correspondences from the manuscript holdings in the Department of Special Collections, University Libraries of Notre Dame. Letter groups included in the drop down menu to the left, or highlighted in the list below, are accessible online as images and textual transcriptions.

Users searching for war-related letter groups should also browse the manuscript series listed under Personal Papers, on this Web site.

  • JOHN A. ALBRIGHT LETTERS. 1864-1865. 4 letters. From February 1864 to July 1865, John A. Albright (b. 1843/4) served in the Union army as a private in Company K, 16th Wisconsin Infantry. Albright, a native of Pennsylvania, resided in Eagle Township, Waukesha County, Wisconsin when he enlisted. The letters date from 23 October 1864 to 8 May 1865, during which time the regiment was attached to Maj. Gen. Frank P. Blair's XVII Corps (1st Brigade, 3rd Division), of the Army of the Tennessee. The earliest of the letters was written from an army hospital in Atlanta, where Albright was recovering from a wound suffered the previous July. The later three were written from the field in Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia, after Albright had returned to the regiment. MSN/CW 5016-1 to MSN/CW 5016-4.

  • ANDERSON-REAVIS CORRESPONDENCE. 1857-1865 (bulk 1862-1863). 13 letters and notes; 2 drawings, 1 clipping, 1 printed obituary. A group consisting primarily of nine letters and three unrelated postscripts written from 1861 to 1863 by Dr. Leroy H. Anderson (1814-1863) of Gainesville, Sumter County, Alabama, to his close friend and sometime patient, Mary S. Reavis, also of Gainesville. Mary Reavis was the second wife of Turner Reavis, a prominent local lawyer who served in the Alabama state senate during the war. Two of the letters were written from Richmond, where Anderson travelled early in the war to serve the Confederacy in a medical capacity. The rest were written in 1862-63 from Aiken, South Carolina; Anderson's health was delicate, and Aiken's climate was reputedly salubrious. Anderson speaks of the progress of the Confederate cause and of the management, in absentia, of his property in Alabama, including his slaves. The group also includes an 1857 letter of Turner Reavis. MSN/CW 5004-1 to MSN/CW 5004-16. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • BENJAMIN H. ANTHONY LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (3 pp.). A letter written by Pvt. Benjamin H. Anthony during his service with Co. I, 2nd Virginia Cavalry (CSA). Anthony (1836-1910) was a native of Campbell County, Virginia. At the time the letter was written (26 May 1862) the regiment was attached to Ewell's Division in Jackson's Valley District, Department of Northern Virginia. Anthony relates his experiences at the battle of Winchester, Virginia (25 May 1862), fought during Jackson's Valley Campaign. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5046-1.

  • FRANCIS AUBIN LETTERS. 1862-1863. 38 letters, most with envelopes. Francis Aubin (b. c1817) was a Canadian immigrant who served as a private in Company D of the 146th New York Infantry ("Garrard's Tigers," a Zouave regiment) in 1862-63. In September 1863 Aubin was transferred into Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserve Corps. The letters date from 11 September 1862 to 26 December 1863, and were written to Aubin's daughter, Eliza Aubin Dudley, in Saratoga and Washington Counties, New York. Twenty-five of the letters date from Aubin's service with the 146th, then attached to the Army of the Potomac (3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, V Corps). Aubin was a native French speaker but attempted to write in English, of which he had only a rudimentary knowledge. Hence, the content of the letters written in his own hand (eight were written for him by others) is repetitious, and the meaning sometimes obscure. MSN/CW 5006-1 to MSN/CW 5006-38.

  • ALBERT J. BALDWIN LETTERS. 1862-1866. 55 letters, with envelopes. Fifty-two of the items in this group are wartime personal letters written by Albert Jehiel Baldwin (1839-1912), who rose to second lieutenant during three years' service in Battery D, 1st Michigan Light Artillery. All are directed to Baldwin's parents, in Union, Branch County, Michigan. In 1862-63 Baldwin and the battery served in the field with the armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland; in 1864-65 the battery mostly performed garrison duty, at Nashville and Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The letters span the full period of Baldwin's service, but most date from September 1863 to May 1865, his final two years in the army. Among the letters are accounts of Baldwin's involvement at Perryville, Chickamauga (where the battery lost its guns), and the siege of Chattanooga. MSN/CW 5089-1 to MSN/CW 5089-56. [Finding Aid]

  • CICERO R. BARKER LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (4 pp.). Cicero R. Barker (1848-1917) was born in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina. He was not yet 14 when he enlisted in the Confederate army, initially serving as a drummer in Co. K, 8th North Carolina Infantry. By the time this letter was written, on 1 December 1864, he had been promoted to regimental drum major. The letter is addressed to Barker's mother, and was written from the Confederate defenses southeast of Richmond. Barker describes the execution of a deserter, and inquires about escaped Union prisoners near the family home in Salisbury. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5040-1. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • BARRIER FAMILY LETTERS. 1861-1868 (bulk 1861-1865). 123 letters, many with envelopes. This collection includes 115 letters written during the Civil War by two brothers serving in the Confederate army. William Lafayette Barrier (1834-1864) served as private and sergeant in Co. F, 1st North Carolina Cavalry. Rufus Alexander Barrier (1836-1876) was captain of Co. H, 8th North Carolina Infantry from 1861 to 1864; he thereafter served on regimental Field and Staff and, as lieutenant colonel, commanded the 8th North Carolina from June 1864 to war's end. The letters are mostly directed to the brothers' father, Mathias Barrier, in Mt. Pleasant, Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Each brother's letters cover close to the full period of his military service, and so provide a relatively seamless account of his years in the field. The eight remaining letters were written by as many different correspondents, and are addressed to either Rufus or Mathias. Gift of Beverly Troxler O'Grady and Robert O'Grady, 2007. MSN/CW 5057-1 to MSN/CW 5057-123. [Finding Aid]

  • BENTON-BEACH FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1865. 224 letters, some with envelopes; 1 CDV portrait, ephemera. Oliver Charles Benton (1836-1907) and his wife Cora Beach Benton (1838-1902) were residents of Albion, Orleans County, New York. From 1862 to 1865 Benton served as private and sergeant in the 17th Independent Battery, New York Light Artillery. Forty of the letters in the correspondence were written by Charlie Benton to Cora; many of these date from the final year of the war, when the battery saw sustained action with the Army of the James in Virginia. One hundred sixty-nine letters were written by Cora to Charlie; these span virtually the full period of Charlie's service, running from 10 September 1862 to 4 June 1865. Cora Benton's letters mention some two hundred people by name, and provide a great deal of commentary on Albion and its residents during the Civil War. Also included in the correspondence are fifteen wartime letters from other members of the Benton and Beach families to Cora or Charlie. MSN/CW 5022-1 to MSN/CW 5022-224.

  • MARY BETTLE LETTERS. 1862. 2 letters. A pair of letters, each dated 4 October 1862, written to the Quaker Mary Bettle (1833-1912) by two female relatives, Sophia Jones and Elizabeth Williams. Mary Bettle was the daughter of Samuel Bettle, Jr. (1809-1880), a prominent Philadelphia merchant; both Bettle and his daughter were ministering Friends. The letters, written from Philadelphia as the Bettle family was touring Europe, discuss the progress of the war from a Quaker perspective, with some mention of Antietam and the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Of additional interest is a four-page enclosure included by Jones with her letter. This is a copy, in Jones's hand, of an account written by an anonymous member of a deputation from the Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends (Orthodox), describing audiences with Salmon P. Chase, Edwin M. Stanton, and Lincoln. The deputation's purpose in seeking the audiences was to gain exemption from the draft. MSN/CW 5029-1 to MSN/CW 5029-2. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • THOMAS B. BOOTH LETTERS. 1862. 3 letters, with envelopes. A group of three letters written from 2 February to 5 March 1862 by Thomas Boisseau Booth (1840-1923), as a member of Co. I, 3rd Virginia Cavalry. The letters were written from the vicinity of Yorktown, and were directed to Booth's sweetheart, Agnes Lyon, at Petersburg. The content is primarily sentimental, allaying Agnes's fears for Booth's health and well-being. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2010. MSN/CW 5090-1 to MSN/CW 5090-3.

  • SERENO BRIDGE LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (4 pp.). Sereno Bridge, a resident of Elgin, Kane County, Illinois, was serving as a private in Company G, 15th Illinois Cavalry when he wrote the accompanying letter to his wife (20 November 1863). The company was then stationed at Helena, Arkansas, its base for scouts into Arkansas and Mississippi. The letter describes one such scout, emphasizing the unequal treatment by the regiment's colonel of two local landowners. MSN/CW 5005-1.

  • BRAXTON BRAGG LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (1 page), with docketing. An official copy of a letter of 1 August 1864 written from Columbus, Georgia by CS Gen. Braxton Bragg, directed to Maj. Gen. D. H. Maury. Bragg was then serving as military adviser to Jefferson Davis; he was in Georgia to apprise the president of circumstances in the Army of Tennessee. The letter concerns the disposition of Brig. Gen. Philip Roddey's Cavalry Brigade. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2011. MSN/CW 5106-1.

  • FRANCIS L. BROWN LETTERS. 1861-1930. 38 letters, some with envelopes; 2 documents; 1 photograph; clippings. Francis Leicester Brown (1841-1915) was a native of Wayne County, New York whose service in the Federal army included time with the 33rd New York Infantry (1861-1863) and the 24th New York Cavalry (1864-1865; captain of Co. L from January 1864). Twenty-five of the letters in the collection were written by Brown during the war, mostly to his younger sister Viette at the family home in Shortsville, Ontario County. Eighteen of these date from Brown's time with the 33rd (including letters written from the battlefields of Antietam and Fredericksburg, 19 September and 15 December 1862). Seven date from his time with the 24th Cavalry (including one written from Spotsylvania, 20 May 1864). The collection also includes 13 letters to Brown regarding his army pension, which became a subject of legal dispute. MSN/CW 5100-1 to MSN/CW 5100-43.

  • JAMES M. BROWN LETTERS. 1862. 2 letters A pair of letters written on 27 June and 4 July 1862 from Gardner Hospital in Richmond, by Confederate private James M. Brown of Co. E, 9th Virginia Cavalry. Suffering from "palpitations of the heart" and awaiting discharge, Brown writes of the Seven Days' battles near Richmond and of hospital life generally. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2012. MSN/CW 5095-1.

  • BOYCE FAMILY LETTERS. 1864-1871 (bulk 1864). 7 letters. Six of the letters in this group were written by Pvt. Ambrose A. Boyce (ca. 1846-1864) of Franklin, Delaware County, New York, during his Civil War service in Co. I, 3rd New York Cavalry. Boyce enlisted in February 1864 and was captured at Mattox Station, Virginia the following May; he died at Andersonville prison on 25 September. The letters were written to Boyce's family between 3 March and 8 April 1864, from camps in New York, Virginia, and North Carolina. Several of the letters contain passages ridiculing U. S. Colored Troops training at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. MSN/CW 5082-1 to MSN/CW 5082-7.

  • JULIUS B. BUFORD LETTERS. 1863. 2 letters. Julius Blackburn Buford (1832-1919) was the son of Paschal and Mary Ann Otey Buford, of Locust Level Plantation near present-day Montvale, Bedford County, Virginia. He served in Co. A, 2nd Virginia Cavalry Regiment (CS) for much of the war; in 1865 he was promoted captain. The two letters here preserved were written by Buford to his sister and mother in the spring of 1863 (5 April and 25 May), from Albemarle County, when the regiment was attached to Fitz. Lee's Brigade of the Cavalry Division of the Army of Northern Virginia. The content of the letters is mostly personal, with some military and political commentary. MSN/CW 5077-1 to MSN/CW 5077-2.

  • CALEY FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1892 (bulk 1862-65). 33 letters; 1 additional manuscript; 1 printed item. Twenty-nine of the letters in this collection were written by Private Charles C. Caley (1839-1901), who served in Company F of the 105th Ohio Infantry from 1862 to 1865. All are addressed to his wife, Juliaette Carpenter Caley, in Mentor, Ohio. Charles Caley was a farm worker, born in Madison, Lake County, Ohio. The four earliest letters in the group were written in 1862 from Kentucky and Indiana (where Caley was hospitalized after being wounded at Perryville). Nine letters were written from Murfreesboro, Tennessee (March to June 1863) and eight from Chattanooga (September 1863 to February 1864). During his service at Chattanooga Caley saw special duty with Battery I of the 4th U.S. Artillery. He returned to the 105th Ohio for the drive on Atlanta (two letters, June to July, 1864) and for subsequent operations in Georgia and the Carolinas (six letters, October 1864 to April 1865). The group also includes four letters written by other members of the Caley family, 1863 to 1867. MSN/CW 5024-1 to MSN/CW 5024-36. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • EDWARD R. S. CANBY LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (1 p.). A brief personal letter concerning some segars, written and signed by Brig. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby on 4 March 1864, when the latter was serving as Assistant Adjutant General in the office of the Secretary of War. MSN/CW 5018-1.

  • L. D. CHERRY LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (5 pages). A personal letter written from Sussex Co., Virginia on 14 December 1864 by Confederate Pvt. L. D. Cherry, as a member of Co. A, 3rd North Carolina Cavalry. The regiment was attached to the North Carolina brigade of Brig. Gen. Rufus C. Barringer, in W. H. F. Lee's Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. Cherry describes Confederate cavalry operations of the previous week against a Federal raid on the Weldon Railroad south of Petersburg (Warren's expedition to Hicksford). Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2009. MSN/CW 5069-1.

  • WILLIAM COMBS LETTERS. 1862-1865. 9 letters, 1 tintype portrait. William Combs (1828-1904) was a farm worker from Winchester, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. From September 1862 to July 1865 he served as a private in Company C of the 14th New Hampshire Infantry. The six earliest letters in the group (November 1862 to January 1864) were written from locations around Washington DC, where the regiment was on picket and patrol or garrison duty. The final three letters (March 1865) were written from Savannah, Georgia. All are addressed to Combs's wife, Eliza Doolittle Combs. MSN/CW 5011-1 to MSN/CW 5011-9. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • JOHN C. COX LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (4 pages). A letter written from the outskirts of Atlanta on 13 July 1864 by John C. Cox, Co. H, 11th Mississippi Cavalry (Perrin's). Cox (b. c1820) owned a substantial plantation in Lowndes County, Mississippi. The 11th Mississippi (Ferguson's Brigade, Jackson's Division, Army of Tennessee) had served throughout the Atlanta campaign and was now south of the Chattahoochee River, some seven miles from the city. Writing to his wife, Cox provides a cursory overview of the military situation, gives word of his own condition, and inquires after matters at home. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5048-1.

  • EDWARD CROFT LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (2 pp.). Edward Croft was a resident of Barnwell County, South Carolina. He began the war as captain of Company H in the Confederate army's 14th South Carolina Infantry; in 1863 he was made the regiment's lieutenant colonel. The letter was written from Camp Pemberton, South Carolina on 23 March 1862, to Croft's intended wife Mary. It includes advice from Croft on how Mary might prevent the loss of her slaves. MSN/CW 5002-1.

  • MARY CROWELL LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (4 pages). A letter of about 1500 words, written on 28-29 April 1862 by Mary Anne Tucker Crowell (b. c1835) of Nora Township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois. The addressee is a cousin Mary, in Orange County, Vermont. Much of the letter is given over to news of the battle of Shiloh (6-7 April 1862), as communicated by the men of Co. E, 15th Illinois Infantry (2nd Brigade, 4th (Hurlbut's) Division, District and Army of West Tennessee). The company, recruited in Jo Daviess County, fared badly in the Confederate onslaught of 6 April; among the wounded was Crowell's brother, Cpl. Rufus B. Tucker, now back in Nora. Crowell mentions many other members of the company and regiment, and generally provides a sense of the effect of this first calamitous battle on the people of the town. MSN/CW 5058-1. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • JEFFERSON DAVIS TELEGRAM. 1865 April 24. 1 manuscript (1 page). Manuscript text for a telegram written and signed by Confederate States president Jefferson Davis, directed to Davis's wife Varina. The text reads: "Charlotte N.C. 24 April 65 / Mrs. Varina Davis Abbeville S.C. via Augusta Ga. / Yours of the 22d Just received. Mr. Harrison [i.e., Burton N. Harrison, Davis's secretary] has gone to join you. I expect to leave in a very few days and to see you at the earliest practicable moment. / J. D." The recipient's copy of this telegram is noted in Crist et al, eds., The Papers of Jefferson Davis, vol. 11, p. 565. Gift of Michael McLoughlin, 2012. MSN/CW 5107-1.

  • DAY FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1861-1867. 21 letters and letter fragments; 1 envelope. This group consists mostly of family letters written to Henry Calvin Day (b. 1829/30), a native of East Weare, Hillsboro County, New Hampshire and a member of Company D, 14th New Hampshire Infantry during the Civil War. Thirteen of these letters date from the period of Day's enlistment, which extended from September 1862 to July 1865. There are also two partial letters written by Day during the war, to his wife, Lucy Hartshorn Day. Among the correspondents represented in the collection are Day's father and mother (George and Sarah Chase Day); two sisters (Mary Ella Day and Sarah Day Reynolds); a brother (George Frank Day); and an uncle (James G. Day). Both of the latter saw service in the Union army. Much of the content relates to family matters, with some observations on the war and on local politics. MSN/CW 5036-1 to MSN/CW 5036-22.

  • DEADERICK FAMILY LETTER. 1865. 1 letter (6 pp). A personal letter written on 8 April 1865 by Inslee Deaderick (1843-1927) or his younger brother Oakley (1845-1925), of Knoxville, Tennessee. The letter, signed only "Your Cousin Deaderick", was written from Nahunta, North Carolina, where the author was serving in Co. I, 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, under Joseph Wheeler. Deaderick speaks of the failed campaign against Sherman, of army and civilian morale, and of his determination to continue fighting in the Trans-Mississippi. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2007. MSN/CW 5092-1.

  • WILLIAM W. DEFOE LETTERS. 1861-1866 (bulk 1864-1866). 30 letters, many with envelopes. Twenty-nine of the 30 letters in this group were written by William W. Defoe (b. c1832), a Vermont native who emigrated to Minnesota before serving in Co. K, 8th Minnesota Infantry, during the Civil War. Two of the letters predate Defoe's enlistment; 19 are from his period of service in the 8th Minnesota; and eight were written from Minnesota after the war. All are addressed to Defoe's parents, Emery and Hannah Defoe, in Westford, Chittenden County, Vermont. Most of the wartime letters date from Defoe's final year of service, from November 1864 to April 1865; many of these were written from North Carolina during the Carolinas Campaign. Much of the content is personal, and revolves around Defoe's plans to return to the family farm in Vermont. and his relationship with his sometimes estranged Irish Catholic wife, Agnes. MSN/CW 5062-1 to MSN/CW 5062-31.

  • DEUPREE FAMILY LETTERS 1864-1865. 2 letters. A pair of letters written by the cousins Sgt. Joseph W. T. Deupree (b. 1840/1), Co. E, 3rd Iowa Cavalry, and Cpl. Moses T. Deupree (b. 1843/4), 4th Iowa Light Artillery. Joseph Deupree's letter, written on 3 April 1864 from St. Louis, describes the 30-day furlough granted him for reenlisting and relays news of relatives serving in the army. Moses Deupree's letter (29 June 1865) was written after its author's return to Iowa, on a disability furlough. Gift of James Christian, 1999. MSN/CW 5045-1 to MSN/CW 5045-2.

  • ALFRED W. DOCKERY LETTERS. 1863, 1894. 2 letters. A pair of letters, one wartime and one post-war, written by Alfred W. Dockery of Richmond County, North Carolina. From 1862 to 1865 Dockery served in Co. E, 38th North Carolina Infantry, rising to 1st lieutenant. The addressee of both letters is a former officer of the 38th North Carolina, Maj. Sanders M. Ingram (resigned 1862). In the wartime letter (21 July 1863) Dockery provides Ingram with an overview of the regiment's involvement in the Gettysburg campaign, mid-June to mid-July 1863, with particular reference to deserters, prisoners, and casualties. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2012. MSN/CW 5102-1 to MSN/CW 5102-2.

  • REV. JOSEPH M. DRIVER LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (6 pages). A letter written from Washington D. C. by the Baptist clergyman and U. S. hospital chaplain Joseph Metcalf Driver (b. ca. 1801), of Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts. Writing to his wife Maria on 11-14 July 1863, Driver mentions his work distributing literature to the sick and wounded; describes Mary Todd Lincoln's carriage accident of 2 July; and comments on Lee's retreat from Gettysburg and the New York draft riots. MSN/CW 5080-1.

  • HENRY STOKES FIGURES LETTER. 1861. 1 letter (3 pp.). A letter written on 9 May 1861 from Montgomery Alabama, by a young salesman named Henry Stokes Figures (1841/2-1864). At the time of the letter Montgomery was still capital of the Confederacy, and the scene of enormous political, social, and military activity. Figures speaks primarily of war preparations, mentioning (among others) Jefferson Davis, P. G. T. Beauregard, and the British journalist William Howard Russell. Figures went on to serve in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1864, rising to become adjutant of the 48th Alabama Infantry before being killed at the Wilderness. MSN/CW 5001-1. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • CORNELIUS FLYNN CORRESPONDENCE. 1860-1873. 51 letters (including 18 20th century copies); envelopes; 3 documents. Cornelius Flynn (1839-after 1920) was a native of Dromahane, County Cork, Ireland who emigrated to the United States in 1860 and found work in a shoe factory in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Most of the items in the collection are personal letters directed to Flynn, from shortly after his arrival in the U.S. to ca. 1873; 10 are from family members in Ireland. Eighteen letters to Flynn from Irish immigrant and Union army soldier Daniel C. Crowley (Co. C, 28th Massachusetts Infantry) survive only as modern copies. These date from 26 March 1864 to 17 May 1865; most were written while Crowley's regiment (of the Army of the Potomac's Irish Brigade) was engaged in the Overland Campaign and the siege of Petersburg. Gift of Robert J. Williams, 2010. MSN/CW 5096-1 to MSN/CW 5096-37.

  • KAUFMAN FUNK LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (4 pp.). Kaufman Funk (1843-1878) was born in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio. From 1861 to 1865 he served in Companies K and G of the 30th Indiana Infantry, rising from private to captain. The letter was written in February 1863 from Camp Sill, Tennessee, where Funk was on detached duty at brigade headquarters (probably as a clerk in the adjutant's office). Filling two folio sheets, the letter describes circumstances in the brigade (2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XX Corps, Army of the Cumberland) in the wake of its rout at the battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro). MSN/CW 5008-1.

  • F. M. GOODWIN LETTERS. 1864. 2 letters. Two personal letters written on 23 July and 9 August 1864 by Confederate 2nd Lt. F. M. Goodwin, Co. C, 28th Mississippi Cavalry. The letters are directed to Goodwin's wife, Susan, in Warren County, Mississippi. At the time the letters were written the 28th Mississippi was attached to F. C. Armstong's brigade in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. The text of the second and longer of the letters includes a description of the regiment's involvement in the repulse of Yankee attacks on 6 August, during the battle of Utoy Creek. Acquisitions funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2008 and 2014. MSN/CW 5075-1 to MSN/CW 5075-2.

  • HUGH S. GOOKIN LETTER. 1862-63. 1 letter (6 pages). A personal letter written from Richmond, Virginia by a young Confederate War Department clerk named Hugh S. Gookin (b. c1843). The letter was begun on 29 December 1862 and completed three days later; it is directed to an unidentified friend in the army. Gookin was a native of Florence, Lauderdale County, Alabama. The letter recounts the deaths, at 2nd Manassas and Antietam, of two members of Co. H, 4th Alabama Infantry (the Lauderdale Volunteer Dragoons). Gookin also writes of Richmond's moral decrepitude, and of the prevalence of smallpox. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2008. MSN/CW 5070-1.

  • WILLIAM GRAHAM LETTERS. 1862-1864. 16 letters, most with envelopes. A group of sixteen letters written by William Graham (b. c1836) as a member of Co. B, 107th New York Infantry. Graham was born in Ireland, and worked as a farm laborer in Schuyler County, New York prior to the war. Most of his period of service (August 1862 to June 1865) was spent as a corporal. Twelve of the letters are addressed to Graham's unmarried sister Elizabeth (b. c1841), a domestic in Schuyler County. The 107th New York served in the Army of the Potomac (12th Corps) to October 1863, and thereafter in the Army of the Cumberland (12th and 20th Corps). Five of the letters were written from the Eastern theater, September 1862 to March 1863; most of the content is personal, or news of camp life. The remainder were written from Tennessee and Georgia, October 1863 to October 1864; during this period the regiment performed guard duty on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, served in the Atlanta campaign, and occupied the city of Atlanta. Two Atlanta campaign letters (21 May and 18 July 1864) include substantial military content. And in a long letter of 7 September 1864 Graham writes of his support for Lincoln and the government, and of his contempt for "a stinkin aristocersy of Slave holders." MSN/CW 5064-1 to MSN/CW 5064-16.

  • NETTIE GUDGEN CORRESPONDENCE. 1859-1871. 100 letters, many with envelopes; 3 miscellaneous manuscripts; 1 letter box. A group of personal letters directed to Lucy Brunetta ("Nettie") Gudgen, born ca. 1846 in Clermont County, Ohio. Almost all the letters date from the 1860s; about half were written during the Civil War. During the period covered by the correspondence Gudgen was a student at Mt. Washington Academy in what is now Cincinnati, and a schoolteacher at several locations in southwest Ohio. The greater number of the letters were written by young female acquaintances and family members, including Gudgen's close friend Carrie Denham; her cousin Emma Belle White; and her sisters Mary, Mollie, and Nancy Gudgen. Mention of the war is for the most part limited, though there are letters to Gudgen from three soldiers, including several from Joseph Frank Trotter of the 52nd and 70th Ohio Infantry. MSN/CW 5084-1 to MSN/CW 5084-105.

  • J. HENRY HAMMET LETTERS. 1864. 2 letters. A pair of letters written in June and July of 1864 by CS Pvt. James Henry Hammet (b. c1846), of Co. C, Hampton Legion (Infantry). The letters are directed to the author's sister Eliza (b. c1844), at the Hammet family residence near Manning, Clarendon County, South Carolina. By this point in the war the Legion's infantry battalion had been mounted, and Hammet comments on this at some length in the earlier of his letters (written on 23 June 1864, from Laurel Hill, Virginia). The second letter, dated 28 July 1864, describes actions during the siege of Petersburg. Both letters include crosshatched pages. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2008. MSN/CW 5072-1 to MSN/CW 5072-2.

  • HANNAH FAMILY LETTERS. 1863-1864. 9 letters, 1 non-epistolary manuscript, and 2 envelopes. Seven of the nine letters in this group were written by Lt. George Baxter Hannah (1843-1914), who served in Co. B, 14th Virginia Cavalry before being appointed to the staff of his brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Alfred Gallatin Jenkins. After Jenkins's death in May 1864 Hannah served as adjutant of his old regiment, now in McCausland's Brigade. Hannah was born into a wealthy Virginia family; his widowed mother and his uncle owned large plantations ("Gravel Hill" and "Cliffside") in Charlotte County, in the south-central part of the state. His letters, addressed to his mother and sister, date from his time as a staff officer; many were written from brigade headquarters in and around Lewisburg in Greenbriar County, West Virginia. Included are a good account of the Confederate defeat at the battle of Droop Mountain (6 November 1863), and several accounts of the battle of Cedar Creek (19 October 1864). There are also two letters written by George Hannah's cousin, Lt. Samuel Baldwin Hannah (1843-1921), who likewise served in the 14th Virginia Cavalry. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2009. MSN/CW 5071-1 to MSN/CW 5071-11.

  • J. SAMUEL HARNSBERGER LETTERS. 1862-1864. 4 letters. A small group of letters written by Confederate States soldier John Samuel Harnsberger (1839-1912) of Rockingham County, Virginia. The letters date from February and July of 1862 and March and July of 1864, and are directed to a sister. Harnsberger's military service included duty in several cavalry regiments, including (from 1862) the 12th Virginia Cavalry. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2011.MSN/CW 5093-1 to MSN/CW 5093-4.

  • M. A. HARVEY LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (4 pages). M. A. Harvey (b. c1839) was a farmer and slaveholder in Austin County, Texas prior to enlisting in Co. B, 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment (Terry's Texas Rangers) in 1861. His letter, closely written on a folio-sized folded sheet dated 15 November 1862, is addressed to a niece identified only as Eva. It describes Pvt. Harvey's, and the regiment's, actions during the Confederate invasion of Kentucky of September-October 1862. In this campaign Terry's Rangers were attached to a cavalry brigade commanded (initially) by Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, and (subsequently) by Col. John A. Wharton, in Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. The letter emphasizes the fighting done by the regiment, referencing at least eight engagements with the Federals, including Woodsonville, Taylorsville, Bardstown, and the battle of Perryville. Of particular interest is Harvey's account of a skirmish on the Tennessee-Kentucky border early in the campaign, in which a Federal soldier captured during the affair is discovered by the Confederates to be a woman. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2007. MSN/CW 5066-1-F1. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • ORA W. HARVEY LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (4 pp.). Ora W. Harvey (1840-1921) was a native of Marlboro, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, who in 1862-63 served as a private in Company A of the 46th Massachusetts Infantry, a nine-month regiment. The letter, written on 15 April 1863 from New Bern, North Carolina, is notable for its discussion of camp recreations, especially baseball. MSN/CW 5026-1. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • HIRAM A. HAWKINS LETTERS. 1861-1864. 35 letters, some with envelopes. Hiram Alonzo Hawkins (1827-1895) was a Vermont native who in 1851 moved west to Illinois, ultimately settling at Virden, Macoupin County, where he farmed and worked as a carpenter. In September 1861 he enlisted in the Union army; the following November he was mustered in a sergeant to Co. D, 9th Illinois Cavalry. Hawkins served in the field until the regiment veteranized, in March 1864; he declined to reenlist, and spent the balance of his three-year term of service on detached duty at Fort Pickering near Memphis. The collection consists of 35 letters written by Hawkins to his wife and parents in Illinois. Five date from early in the war (28 November 1861 to 23 March 1862, from Camp Douglas in Chicago and from Missouri). Another twelve were written while Hawkins was campaigning with the regiment in southwest Tennessee, 4 September 1863 to 7 March 1864. The final seventeen (13-14 March to 26 August 1864) date from Hawkins' period of detached duty at Memphis. Several of these late letters make it plain that Hawkins' authority as a non-commissioned officer was compromised by his status as a "non-veteran;" i. e., by his failure to reenlist. MSN/CW 5076-1 to MSN/CW 5076-36.

  • LEVI HINES LETTERS. 1861-1864. 32 letters. Thirty of the 32 letters in this group were written by Pvt. Levi Hines (1839-1864) of Wolcott, Lemoille County, Vermont, during his Civil War service in the 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery. Hines, a farm laborer, was mustered in on 1 September 1862, to Co. A, 11th Vermont Infantry; the regiment's designation was changed to artillery the following December. For nearly two years Hines's company served on the defenses of Washington, at Fort Lincoln (September to November 1862); Fort Totten (to March 1864); and Fort Slemmer (to May 1864). In mid-May the regiment joined the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, to serve as infantry in the Overland campaign. On 23 June Hines was captured outside Petersburg, and had the misfortune to be sent to the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Georgia; he died in the camp hospital on 13 October 1864. All Hines's letters are addressed to his brother, Joseph Hines (b. 1835/6), a pharmaceuticals salesman in Pennsylvania. Mostly, they describe the routine of life in the Washington fortifications, where tedium and disease were the men's chief antagonists. There is one letter written by Hines from Cold Harbor (8 June 1864), and one written by Cpl. Abel Roberts of the 1st Vermont reporting Hines's capture. MSN/CW 5060-1 to MSN/CW 5060-32.

  • H. TALBERT HOLT LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (6 pp.). A personal letter written from Wartrace, Tennessee on 28 May 1863 by Confederate private Hiram Talbert Holt (d. 1864), Co. I, 38th Alabama Infantry (Clayton's Brigade, Army of Tennessee). In the course of an engaging letter of reminiscence and advice directed to his wife, Carrie, Holt mentions a female prisoner now at Wartrace who had fought at Perryville and Murfreesboro disguised as a man. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2010. MSN/CW 5091-1.

  • HUSE FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1837-1898 (bulk 1860-1865). About 350 letters and other manuscripts. Much the greater part of this collection consists of personal letters written by and to members of the Huse family of Center Barnstead, Belknap County, New Hampshire, just prior to and during the Civil War. Members of the family figuring extensively in the correspondence include: Thomas Mussey Huse (1811-1881), postmaster at Center Barnstead; his wife Elisabeth Scobey Huse (1815-1911); and three of the couple's children, Henry (1839-1890), Jennie (1841-1906), and David (1844-1863) Huse. Thomas Huse is the author of 16 of the letters, mostly written during his service as a private in Co. G, 8th New Hampshire Infantry (one letter, June 1862); as a lieutenant in Co. G, 15th New Hampshire Infantry (four letters, December 1862 to January 1863); and as an employee of the U. S. Sanitary Commission (nine letters from City Point, Virginia, October 1864 to January 1865). Elisabeth Huse is the author of 55 wartime letters, directed to her husband and children from New Hampshire. Besides personal and social news, these contain commentary on the war, on local and national politics, on money matters, and on her own work as acting postmaster at Center Barnstead. Several include copies of letters from the eldest Huse son, Henry, a schoolteacher who spent most of his military service as captain of Co. G, 8th New Hampshire Infantry. He is the author of 36 wartime letters, most of them written from the vicinity of New Orleans and from upstate Louisiana in 1862-63. David Huse, the middle son, is the author of eight letters, written as a private in the 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters (one letter, August 1861); as an invalid in Maryland and Washington DC (three letters, March-June 1862); and as a corporal in Co. G, 15th New Hampshire Infantry (March-July 1863). David Huse died of typhoid in August 1863. Jennie Huse, a schoolteacher, is the author of 12 letters but the addressee of many more, and is a significant presence in the correspondence. The collection also includes letters written by dozens of other individuals, mostly to Huse family members. Among these are the letters of seven active soldiers, including 22 written between February 1862 and February 1865 by Pvt. Samuel G. Shackford of Barnstead, a widower whose daughter lived in the Huse household during the war. Shackford served with Thomas and Henry Huse in Co. G of the 8th New Hampshire; many of his letters are from camps around New Orleans and Baton Rouge. There is an account of the First Battle of Bull Run, written to Jennie Huse two days after the fight by Pvt. Samuel Smart, Co. H, 2nd Connecticut Infantry. There are also two captured Confederate letters, including one written by an unidentified officer of the 2nd Louisiana Light Artillery Battery on the occasion of the surrender of Port Hudson, Louisiana. MSN/CW 5054-1 to MSN/CW 5054-347.

  • JOHN M. JACKSON LETTERS. 1862-1864. 43 letters and 1 document. John M. Jackson (1840-1913) was born in Lewiston, Androscoggin County, Maine. In September 1862 he was mustered in to Company A of the 23rd Maine Infantry, a nine-month regiment posted to the Potomac defenses. In 1864 he re-enlisted, serving as sergeant in Company D of the 32nd Maine Infantry (2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, IX Corps). Fifteen of Jackson's letters (September 1862 to April 1863) date from his time with the 23rd, and were written from camps at Portland, Maine and along the Potomac. Eleven letters (May to August 1864) were written during the Army of the Potomac's Overland campaign and from outside Petersburg. Fifteen more (August to December 1864) were written from hospitals in Virginia, after Jackson fell sick. Jackson was mustered out of service when the 32nd Maine was consolidated (12 December 1864). MSN/CW 5017-1 to MSN/CW 5017-44. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • STONEWALL JACKSON LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (1 page). A letter of 23 October 1862 written and signed by Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, as commanding officer of 2nd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. The letter, directed to Gen. Robert E. Lee, recommends the assignment of the recently promoted Brig. Gen William E. ("Grumble") Jones to brigade command in the Cavalry Division of the Army of Northern Virginia, despite the objections of ANV cavalry commander J. E. B. Stuart. Docketing indicates that the letter was presented by Lee to J. William Bushly at Fredericksburg, Virginia, 31 January 1863. Gift of Michael McLoughlin, 2012. MSN/CW 5098-1.

  • JACKSON FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1852-c1866 (bulk 1855-1864). 59 letters, many with envelopes; 1 commonplace book; 1 newspaper clipping; 4 photographs. The central figure in this family correspondence is Archibald A. Jackson (1835-1864), a turpentine distiller from Moore County, North Carolina who served in Co. H, 30th North Carolina Infantry from 1861 until his death in 1864. Nineteen of the letters in the group predate the Civil War; many of these were written to Archibald Jackson by relatives who had settled outside Moore County. Of the forty wartime letters in the collection, eleven were written by Archibald Jackson during his time in the army; ten more were written by two of Jackson's brothers, Burgess (1839-1864) and Gorry (b. 1845), during their own periods of service (the former in Co. H of the 30th North Carolina, 1862-1864; the latter in Co. I of the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry, 1864-1865). These were mainly directed home to Moore County, most notably to two of the Jacksons' sisters, Dicy Ann (b. 1837) and Effie Jane (b. 1841). Most of Archibald Jackson's letters were written from December 1862 to April 1864, from camps in Virginia, when the regiment was attached to the Army of Northern Virginia. Many of Burgess Jackson's were written from hospitals in Richmond. The collection also includes wartime letters to the Jacksons from a number of other individuals, including at least eight Confederate States soldiers, most of them residents of Moore County serving in either the 30th North Carolina or the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry. Also present are a small wartime commonplace book kept by Effie Jackson, and four family photographs. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2008. MSN/CW 5067-1 to MSN/CW 5067-62; MSN/CW 5067-63-P to MSN/CW 5067-66-P. [Finding Aid]

  • JOHNSTON-RHOADS FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1859-1894 (bulk 1861-1864). 118 letters, some with envelopes; 5 additional manuscripts. Central to the Johnston-Rhoads correspondence is a group of 50 letters exchanged by Charles Ward Johnston and his wife, Sarah Jane Rhoads Johnston, during the Civil War. Charles Johnston (b. ca. 1831) was a Marion County, Indiana farmer who served as a private in Co. B, 79th Indiana Infantry, and subsequently in the Engineering Corps. The couple's letters date from September 1862, following Johnston's enlistment, to October 1863, shortly before Jane Johnston's death. Most of Charles Johnston's 20 letters to his wife were written from Kentucky or Tennessee. The balance of the collection consists mostly of wartime personal letters directed to Charles or Jane Johnston, many by family members. Among these are a total of 23 letters written from the field by six different Union soldiers, including Jane's brother William F. Rhoads and family friend Henry C. Bodkin, both members of Co. H, 11th Indiana Infantry. One of Rhoads's letters is a description of the battle of Shiloh, 6-7 April 1862. MSN/CW 5088-1 to MSN/CW 5088-125.

  • HENRY FRANCIS JONES LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (6 pp). Henry Francis Jones (1841-1864) was a native of Thomas County in southwest Georgia; his father was one of the region's prominent planters. Immediately prior to the war he was studying law at the University of Georgia. At the time the letter was written, 16 April 1863, Jones (whose grade at this juncture is not clear; he was probably 2nd lieutenant) was serving on the staff of Cobb's Legion Cavalry Battalion, then attached to Hampton's Brigade in the Cavalry Division of the Army of Northern Virginia. The letter was written to Jones's sister Harriet, from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, through which the battalion was passing, searching for forage. The content of the letter is primarily social; it describes at length several dinners attended by Jones and his companion officers, hosted by residents of the Shenandoah Valley. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2005. MSN/CW 5034-1.

  • JAMES B. JORDAN LETTER. 1865. 1 letter (1 p.), with envelope. James B. Jordan (1838-1899) was born in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina. He served as lieutenant in Company D of the Confederate army's 26th North Carolina Infantry from 1861 to 1863; during this time he also served as regimental adjutant. Wounded and captured at Gettysburg, he spent the remainder of the war in the prison camp at Johnson's Island, Ohio. The letter, dated 5 February 1865, was written from prison to Jordan's future wife, Mattie Fearn, in Milton, Kentucky. MSN/CW 5000-1.
    [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • OLIVER N. KING LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (2 pages), with envelope; 1 tintype photograph. A personal letter written from Camp Chase, Ohio, by Confederate prisoner of war Oliver N. King, Co. I, 3rd Kentucky Cavalry. King (b. ca. 1832) was a resident of Garrard County, Kentucky; he had been captured several days before at Cheshire, Ohio, on John Hunt Morgan's Indiana-Ohio raid. The letter is addressed to a relative named John Dorman, a Union sympathizer. Accompanying the letter is a war-date tintype portrait of King. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2011. MSN/CW 5087-1 to MSN/CW 5087-2-P.

  • RICHARD HENRY LEE LETTERS. 1862-1863. 2 letters, 1 with envelope. A pair of letters written from the field to CS Sgt. Richard Henry Lee (b. c1842), Co. C, 5th North Carolina Cavalry. The earlier of the letters appears to date from April 1862, before Lee's enlistment; its author—who cannot be identified with certainty—was serving in the army near Kinston, North Carolina. The second letter was written on 1 December 1863 by Cpl. Thomas Owen Bunting (b. 1845), who like Lee was a member of Co. C and a native of Sampson County, North Carolina. The letter describes the capture of a Federal camp during an engagement at Parker's Store, Virginia, 29 November 1863. At this time the 5th North Carolina Cavalry was serving in Baker's-Gordon's Brigade, Hampton's Division, in the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2005. MSN/CW 5042-1 to MSN/CW 5042-2.

  • ROBERT AUSTIN LEE LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (2 pages). A personal letter written on 4 March 1863 by Confederate private Robert A. Lee (1835-1918), Co. I, 2nd Virginia Cavalry. Lee mentions his tardy return from furlough and the regiment's recent engagement at Hartwood Church, Virginia. MSN/CW 5094-1.

  • NANCY LYNE CORRESPONDENCE. 1863/4-1865. 4 letters, some with envelopes. A small group of prison letters written by three different members of Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan's Cavalry, to Nancy (Nannie) Lyne (b. 1844) of Woodford County, Kentucky. Lyne was the unmarried daughter of the planter William Lyne; she appears to have corresponded with a number of Morgan's troopers held as prisoners in the North. Two of the letters were written by Van Buren J. Sellers (b. 1835/6) of Woodford County, who in October 1861 was elected 3rd lieutenant of the original company organized and commanded by Morgan (the former "Lexington Rifles" militia, soon to become Co. A, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry). Sellers was captured on Morgan's Ohio raid (20 July 1863), in which he participated as 2nd lieutenant in Co. G, 9th Tennessee Cavalry. He spent the remainder of the war in prison, first at Pittsburgh, than at Point Lookout, Maryland (from which place the earlier of the two letters was written, on 30 April 1864), and finally at Fort Delaware (the place of origin of the second letter, 12 February 1865). The other letters in the group were written from Camp Douglas in Chicago, in the fall of either 1863 or 1864. One of the authors can be identified as Pvt. William S. Penney (b. 1841/2) of Woodford County and Co. I, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry. Acquired through the generosity of Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5049-1 to MSN/CW 5049-4.

  • MICHAEL MAGUIRE LETTER. 1864. 1 letter, with envelope. A personal letter written on 29 September 1864 from the Petersburg trenches by 2nd Lt. Michael Maguire (b. ca. 1839), Co. D, 170th New York Infantry. The 170th New York was an Irish regiment, attached to Corcoran's Irish Legion (2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac). MSN/CW 5101-1.

  • HENRY H. MALEY LETTERS. 1862-1865. 50 letters. Prior to his enlistment in the Union army, Henry H. Maley (1842/3-1893) lived and worked on his parents' farm near Oquawka in Henderson County, Illinois. From September 1862 to June 1865, Maley served as a private in Company K of the 84th Illinois Infantry. All the letters in this group were written by Maley to his parents; 49 of these date from the final year of the war, between 2 July 1864 and 29 May 1865, when the regiment was attached to IV Corps, in the Army of the Cumberland. Thus, the letters provide an essentially continuous narrative of the last eleven months of Maley's service, including his involvement in the Atlanta campaign and in subsequent actions against the Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood in Tennessee (culminating in the battle of Nashville on 15-16 December, where Maley was wounded). Sixteen letters from 1865 mostly describe provost guard duty in Huntsville, Alabama, and an expedition to East Tennessee. MSN/CW 5023-1 to MSN/CW 5023-50. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • RICHARD I. MANNING LETTER. 1861. 1 letter (2 pages). A brief letter written from Manassas the night after the First Battle of Bull Run by CS Pvt. Richard I. Manning (b. 1838), Co. C, Hampton's Legion Infantry Battalion. Manning informs his stepmother of the victory and of the well-being of himself, his father (former South Carolina governor John L. Manning) and his uncle. He also speaks of the death of Lt. Col. Benjamin I. Johnson and the wounding of his cousin, Col. Wade Hampton. MSN/CW 5081-1.

  • "MARY ANN" LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (6 pages). A personal letter written on 20 July 1863 by a woman identifiable only as "Mary Ann," of Coal Run, Washington County, Ohio. The letter, addressed to the author's sisters, speaks of the "greatest state of excitement" then prevailing in the area due to the approach of the Confederate cavalry raider John Hunt Morgan, as he sought passage across the Muskingum River. MSN/CW 5078-1.

  • THOMAS F. MASON LETTERS ON THE COTTON TRADE. 1863-1864. 4 letters. Four manuscript letters addressed to New York investor Thomas F. Mason, discussing the cotton trade conducted by northern merchants in Confederate held areas along the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. MSN/CW 5111-1 to MSN/CW 5111-4. [Finding Aid]

  • MASTERSON FAMILY PAPERS. 1862-1923 (bulk 1862-1865). 83 letters, 25 miscellaneous manuscripts, 7 pieces of printed ephemera, 14 photographs. This collection includes 54 letters written during the Civil War by John W. Masterson (ca. 1844-1880), of Co. A, 133rd New York Infantry. Most are directed to Masterson's sister, Rose Ellen Masterson, in New York City. The letters span the full period of Masterson's service, ranging in date from October 1862 to June 1865. Many are written from Louisiana, where the 133rd New York served in various capacities from December 1862 to July 1864. In addition to the Civil War letters the collection includes other family papers, most notably a group of 22 letters written by John Masterson's son, William (b. ca. 1875) to his older sister Ida (b. ca. 1870). MSN/CW 5109-1 to MSN/CW 5109-72. [Finding Aid]

  • CHRISTOPHER C. MCKINNEY LETTERS. 1861-1862. 5 letters, most with envelopes. Christopher C. McKinney (1825-1902) was a native of Lincoln County, Tennessee. He enlisted in Company B of the 8th Tennessee Infantry (CSA) in 1861 and served in that regiment until 1865, rising to the grade of lieutenant colonel. At the time the letters were written (31 August 1861 to 16 February 1862) McKinney, a 1st lieutenant, was regimental adjutant. The letters originate from locations in northwest Virginia and South Carolina, and are addressed to McKinney's wife Mary in Petersburg, Tennessee. MSN/CW 5003-1 to MSN/CW 5003-5. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • FRIEND R. MCMAHON LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (2 pp.), with envelope. A single letter, dated 14 March 1863, written by Friend R. McMahon (1837-1916) as a private in Company H, 13th Texas Cavalry, then attached to J. G. Walker's division in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi. The letter was written from camp near Pine Bluff, Arkansas to McMahon's wife, Martha Fuller McMahon, in Newton County, Texas. McMahon mentions the execution of several deserters; remarks on the company's victimization, over the previous year, by hunger, exposure, and disease; and gives thanks for his own continued good health. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2005. MSN/CW 5038-1.

  • WALTER H. MCRAE LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (2 pages), w/ envelope. A business letter of 7 June 1864 from Walter H. McRae (1830-1878) to his father Col. John C. McRae, regarding developments at the Endor Iron Works in the Deep River Valley, Chatham County, North Carolina. With stamped cover. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2013. MSN/CW 5104-1.

  • T. J. McWHINNEY LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (2 pages). A personal letter written on 4 July 1862 from City Point, Virginia, by Pvt. T. J. McWhinney (1843-1864), Co. A, 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry. The regiment was then attached to 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac. The letter, written on a folio-sized sheet of brown paper, describes the regiment's involvement in the Seven Days' battles east of Richmond, including actions at Mechanicsville (26 June), Gaines' Mill (27 June), and Malvern Hill (1 July). MSN/CW 5073-1.

  • MEEK FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1861-1869 (bulk 1861-1865). 27 letters. A group of personal letters written by, to, or about James Monroe Meek (b. 1821), an East Tennessee lawyer and legislator jailed by the Confederates for his Unionist sympathies. Meek was born on a farm near Strawberry Plains in Jefferson County, and represented that county in the state legislatures of 1855-57 and 1861-63. He was imprisoned from April to July 1862, ultimately at Macon, Georgia, and arrested again in June 1863. Meek was among the Tennessee Unionists who met at Nashville in January 1865, to initiate the formation of a new government. After the war he prospered, in the legal profession and in business. The letters in the collection fall into three chronological groups: 1) October 1861 to June 1862 (17 letters); April 1864 to February 1865 (eight letters); and 3) March 1869 (two letters). James Meek is the author of 17 of the letters, all directed to his wife, Elizabeth Walker Meek (b. 1839), at New Market, Jefferson County. These include letters from Nashville when Meek was a member of the state legislature (1861-62); three letters from the Confederate prison at Camp Oglethorpe in Macon (June 1862); and various late-war letters from Knoxville and Nashville. The two letters from 1869 are first-hand accounts of Grant's inauguration. Meek's letters typically combine the personal and political, in varying degrees. Elizabeth Meek is the author of seven of the letters. Five of these are addressed to her husband, while two others seek political influence in obtaining his release following the arrest of April 1862; these are directed to William G. Swan and to Jefferson Davis. MSN/CW 5053-1 to MSN/CW 5053-28. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • MARCELLUS OVANDO MESSER CORRESPONDENCE. 1853-1924 (bulk 1862-1865). 145 letters and letter fragments, most with envelopes. Central to this collection of 145 family letters are 112 complete and 2 partial personal letters written by Marcellus Ovando Messer during his Civil War era military service in Company C, 19th Ohio Infantry. These letters date from 11 January 1862 to 23 October 1865, and are mostly directed to his parents and siblings in Warren, Ohio. Messer served in many of the western theater's major campaigns, mainly in Tennessee and Georgia, and was present at the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Nashville. MSN/CW 5108-1 to MSN/CW 5108-124. [Finding Aid]

  • MILLER FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1871 (bulk 1862-1863). 47 letters and letter fragments; 9 envelopes. Thirty-five of the letters in this group were either written by (18) or sent to (17) Alanson Miller, during his Civil War service in Company E, 141st Pennsylvania Infantry. Miller (c1819-1863) was a farmer from Litchfield, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. He was mustered in a private on 25 August 1862, but was frequently sick and off active duty before being discharged for disability in April 1863; he died the following August. Most of Miller's letters were written from Virginia, to his wife, Frances Chandler Miller, and children; familiar topics include Miller's own health, his prospects for pay, the sending and receiving of letters, and family matters generally. Most of the letters addressed to Alanson were written by Frances Miller, though writings of nine other family members and friends are represented in the correspondence. MSN/CW 5035-1 to MSN/CW 5035-48.

  • RICHARD C. MORGAN LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (4 pp.). A letter written on 25 August 1863 by the Confederate Col. Richard Curd Morgan (1836-1918), as a prisoner at the State Penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio. Morgan, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, commanded the 14th Kentucky Cavalry (CSA) on the famous Indiana-Ohio Raid led by his brother, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan (2-26 July 1863). Like the rest of the officers captured on the raid, Dick Morgan was declared a civil prisoner, ineligible for parole; among his companions at Columbus were three of his brothers, including John, and his brother-in-law, Col. Basil Duke. The letter was almost certainly directed to the author's sister-in-law, Martha ("Mattie") Ready Morgan (1840-1887), who had married John Hunt Morgan the previous December. It was written in response to what was apparently the first letter of Mattie Morgan's to be received at the prison. Morgan writes of the prisoners' circumstances and the privileges accorded them, and provides news of family members and acquaintances, in prison and out. In addition to the Morgan brothers and Duke, the letter mentions Confederate generals A. P. Hill (on whose staff Dick Morgan had served) and Simon Bolivar Buckner (who had forwarded Mattie's letter to Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside of the Department of the Ohio). Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5050-1. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • ROBERT HAMILL NASSAU LETTERS. 1863-1864. 7 letters, 1 note, and 1 manuscript report. A group of personal letters written by the Presbyterian missionary and medical doctor Robert Hamill Nassau, from the island of Corisco in the Gulf of Guinea. Nassau (1835-1921) was a New Jersey native who studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Pennsylvania medical school. He arrived in equatorial West Africa in 1861 and went on to spend some forty years in the region, publishing extensively on its religions, languages, and natural history. The letters (47 pp.), directed to various members of Nassau's family, discuss the spiritual, educational, and medical aspects of the Corisco mission, and African life generally. They also reference the persistence of the African slave trade, and developments in the American Civil War. The collection also includes a retained draft of a report to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, dealing with outstations on the African mainland (1863). MSN/CW 5086-1 to MSN/CW 5086-9.

  • J. J. NEELY LETTERS. 1861-1862. 2 letters. A pair of early-war letters written by future Confederate cavalry colonel James Jackson Neely, as captain of Co. B, 6th (Logwood's) Tennessee Cavalry Battalion. Neely (b. 1817/8) was a medical doctor from Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tennessee. The earlier of the letters, written from Randolph, Tipton County, Tennessee on 19 July 1861, speaks of the battalion's organization. The second letter (4 February 1862) was written from the Confederate stronghold of Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi, after Neely's unit had been transferred to Confederate service as Co. E, 7th Tennessee Cavalry. Both letters were directed to Neely's wife, Frances. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5051-1 to MSN/CW 5051-2.

  • JAMES PARKISON LETTERS. 1864-1866. 11 letters, some with envelopes. The eleven letters in this group were written by James Parkison (1823-1886), a printer residing in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. They range in date from 2 October 1864 to 18 March 1866; all are addressed to Parkison's brother, William M. Parkison, who in 1864-65 was serving in the 1st United States Veteran Volunteer Engineers, in the Department of the Cumberland. Three letters dating to October 1864 speak a good deal of local and national politics; Parkison, writing as a civilian, was an ardent pro-war Republican and supporter of Lincoln. MSN/CW 5007-1 to MSN/CW 5007-11. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • PARKS FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1861-1862. 12 letters, most with envelopes. The Parks correspondence includes a sequence of nine early-war letters written by Pvt. Isaac Parks (b. 1837/8), as a member of Co. C, 52nd Illinois Infantry. Parks was a a native of Washington County, New York who moved west to Dupage County, Illinois in 1860, where he worked as a farm laborer. All but one of Parks' letters are directed to his wife, Sarah E. Parks (b. 1840/1), in Dupage County. Parks enlisted in September 1861 and was mustered in to the 52nd Illinois on 19 November. His letters range in date from 3 October 1861 to 25 March 1862. During this period the regiment served at St. Joseph, Missouri and Smithland, Kentucky, before being sent to Fort Donelson and ultimately, in March, to Pittsburg Landing, to join the Army of the Tennessee. One letter, written from the transport Lebanon on the Mississippi (19 February 1862), describes the aftermath of the battle at Fort Donelson and the regiment's escort of Confederate prisoners to Chicago. Several more describe the buildup of troops around Pittsburg Landing, prior to the battle of Shiloh. The group also includes several 1861 letters written to Sarah Parks by her mother-in-law, Sylvia Parks. MSN/CW 5052-1 to MSN/CW 5052-12.

  • PEED FAMILY LETTERS. 1862-1865. 16 letters. Of the sixteen personal letters in this group, fourteen were written by John Nathaniel Peed (1843-1935) and two by James Oscar Peed (1845-1863), brothers from King George County, Virginia who served together in Company I of the Confederate army's 9th Virginia Cavalry. John Peed joined the army in October 1861 and remained until 1865, serving mostly as a bugler. James Peed joined his brother in Company I in October 1862; he was wounded and captured in September 1863 and died the following December at Point Lookout prison. Of John Peed's fourteen letters, four were written from camps in Virginia between October 1863 and April 1864. The rest date from 30 August 1864 to 18 February 1865, when the regiment was assisting in the Army of Northern Virginia's defense of Petersburg. James's second letter, dated 11 January 1863, describes a December 1862 skirmish with Union troopers near Dumfries, Virginia. Most of the letters are addressed to the Peeds' mother, Nancy Owens Peed. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2005-06. MSN/CW 5037-1 to MSN/CW 5037-16. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • WILLIAM N. PENDLETON LETTER. 1875. 1 letter (4 pages). A post-war ALS of former Confederate brigadier general William N. Pendleton (1809-1883), then rector of Grace Church in Lexington, Virginia. The letter responds to a request by J. William Jones for a testimonial for Jones's Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (New York, 1874). Pendleton's comments are appreciative of both the book and the man. MSN/CW 5085-1.

  • GEORGE F. POLLARD LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (7 pages). A personal letter written on 9 April 1863 by Pvt. George F. Pollard of Woburn Massachusetts, as a member of Co. K, 39th Massachusetts Infantry. The letter, written from Poolesville, Maryland to Pollard's sister Emma, discusses camp life along the Potomac, a trip into town, and the formation and growth of a temperance society to which Pollard belonged. MSN/CW 5079-1.

  • J. J. A. POWELL LETTERS. 1863. 3 letters, 1 with envelope. A group of three personal letters written in October-November 1863 by 17-year-old Virginia Military Institute cadet John James Audubon Powell (1846-1930). The letters are directed to a younger sister, Blanche, and deal mostly with friends and family. Powell was the son of John Norment Powell, a wealthy Henrico County planter and physician. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2010. MSN/CW 5099-1 to MSN/CW 5099-3.

  • G. JULIAN PRATT LETTERS. 1861-1863. 7 letters. George Julian Pratt (1843-1924) was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville prior to the war. He served in the Confederate States army from 1861 to 1865, in Wise's Legion (1861-62), the 1st Virginia Partisan Rangers (1862), and the 18th Virginia Cavalry (1st lieutenant, Co. H, 1862-65). Five of the letters in the group were written by Pratt to his mother or father, including one from western Virginia (30 August 1861) and four from separate locations in the Shenandoah Valley (December 1862 to November 1863). These latter include frequent references to the Imboden brothers of Staunton, John D., George W., and Francis M. (who in 1863 were Pratt's brigade, regimental, and company commanders, repectively). Also in the group is a copy, in Pratt's hand, of a letter from Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise, supporting Pratt's efforts to secure his pay while at home awaiting exchange following his capture and parole (12 June 1862). Acquired through the generosity of Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5041-1 to MSN/CW 5041-7. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • WILLIAM T. PRESLEY LETTERS. 1862-1864. 7 letters. Six of the letters in this group were written by CS Pvt. William Taylor Presley (c1835-1895), Co. A, 1st Alabama Cavalry, to his wife, Henrietta Ward Presley, in Autauga County, Alabama. Two of Presley's letters were written in the summer of 1862, from northeast Mississippi; two in the summer of 1863, from Calhoun County, Alabama; and two in the summer of 1864, during the campaign for Atlanta. The group also includes a letter to Henrietta from her brother, Pvt. Robert L. Ward of the 1st Alabama; this was enclosed with Presley's letter of 16 July 1864. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O’Grady, 2008. MSN/CW 5074-1 to MSN/CW 5074-7.

  • JOSEPH H. PRIME PAPERS. 1858-1881 (bulk 1863-1865). 126 letters, 3 diaries, and 24 documents and other manuscripts. Joseph H. Prime (1841-1911) was a native of Dover, Strafford County, New Hampshire, the son of Joseph Prime and Mahala Vickery. During the Civil War he served as corporal in Co. F, 13th New Hampshire Infantry (September 1862 to October 1863), and as 1st lieutenant and captain in G and F companies, 7th Regiment Infantry, United States Colored Troops (November 1863 to May 1865). The majority of the letters in the collection were written by Prime to his wife, Hannah Snell Prime, in Center Barnstead, Belknap County, New Hampshire. Twenty-four of these letters date from his time with the 13th New Hampshire; 80 date from his subsequent service with the 7th USCT. The latter regiment spent the winter of 1863-64 in camp at Benedict, Maryland, before being shipped south for service around Jacksonville, Florida (March to July 1864); Hilton Head, South Carolina (July 1864); and Jacksonville again (July to August 1864). They were then attached to the all-black 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, X Corps, Army of the James, campaigning around Petersburg. Prime was wounded in the shoulder at Chaffin's Farm (29 September 1864), and spent most of the next six months in various Virginia hospitals, due to the wound and a subsequent case of rheumatism. On 16 March 1865 Captain Prime was appointed provost marshall of the division (now 2nd Division, XXV Corps), in which capacity he served for the duration of his service. The epistolary accounts of Prime's war are supplemented by several diaries, with entries of varying length running from the beginning of 1864 to 1866. The collection also includes more than 20 records, mostly relating to Prime's service in the USCT and to his pension. MSN/CW 1012-1 to MSN/CW 1012-154.

  • WILLIAM PROPST LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (1 page). A personal letter written on 11 May 1863 by Confederate 2nd lieutenant William M. Propst of Cabarrus County, North Carolina, as a member of Co. F, 57th North Carolina Infantry. Propst writes to his wife of circumstances in Old Capitol Prison in Washington, where he was being held prisoner following his capture at the Battle of Chancellorsville. MSN/CW 5097-1.

  • PUGH FAMILY LETTERS. 1862-1864. 12 letters. The six earliest letters in this group were written by John Pugh (1833/4-1924), a native of New Brighton, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Pugh joined the Union navy in October 1861; at the time the letters were written (30 March to 27 July 1862) he was yeoman aboard the U.S.S. Quaker City, serving in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. The letters, written home to New Brighton, describe life on the blockade, as well as the particulars of the Quaker City's apprehension of four ships suspected of bearing cargos for the Confederacy. Six additional letters in the group were written by John Pugh's father, Joseph T. Pugh (1809-1903). Five of these were sent to New Brighton in the summer of 1864, when Pugh was in Columbus, Ohio, working temporarily in the Quartermaster's office of the army's Northern Department. MSN/CW 5009-1 to MSN/CW 5009-11. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • HARRISON E. RANDALL LETTERS. 1862-1865. 77 letters, some with envelopes. Harrison E. Randall (1840-1931) was born in Hampshire County, Massachusetts; in the 1850s he and his family moved west to Clinton township, Fulton County, Ohio. From September 1862 to June 1865 he served as private and corporal in Company H, 100th Ohio Infantry (a regiment initially attached to the Army of Kentucky and later, from June 1863, to XXIII Corps). The letters, addressed to Randall's parents, span almost the full course of his military service. Most were written from Kentucky (September 1862 to August 1863), Georgia, during the Atlanta campaign (June to August 1864), Alabama and Tennessee, including letters from the Nashville campaign (October 1864 to January 1865) and North Carolina (March and April 1865). Randall was captured on 8 September 1863; there are no letters in the collection from the period of his imprisonment. MSN/CW 5013-1 to MSN/CW 5013-76. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • READ FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1850-early 20th century (bulk 1861-1865). 31 letters, some with envelopes; 4 documents, 2 clippings. Ten of the 28 wartime letters in this group were written by Thomas Griffin Read (1835-1895), of Rockingham County in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. From 1861 until his capture in 1864, Read served as private and sergeant in Company I of the 33rd Virginia Infantry, attached to the Stonewall Brigade of Jackson's Valley command and the Army of Northern Virginia. Two of Read's letters describe First Bull Run and the retreat from Gettysburg; seven were written from the Federal prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. Fifteen additional letters in the group were written by Thomas G. Read's wife, Martha S. White Read, called Mattie (b. 1833/34), who spent most of the war years at the home of her father in Waynesboro, Augusta County, Virginia. There are also three wartime letters of Thomas G. Read's brother, the Confederate artilleryman John Henry Read, one written in 1861 from present-day West Virgina and two as a prisoner from Rock Island, Illinois. MSN/CW 5015-1 to MSN/CW 5015-38. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • SAMUEL T. REEVES CORRESPONDENCE. 1864-1870 (bulk 1865). 31 letters, some with envelopes. Samuel T. Reeves (b. 1831/2) was a farmer from Vigo township, Knox County, Indiana. From September 1862 to June 1865 he served as a sergeant in Company C of the 80th Indiana Infantry. Twenty-eight of the letters in the correspondence were written by Reeves to his wife Huldah, mostly in the spring of 1865, when Reeves was convalescing in the army hospital at Camp Dennison in Ohio. The letters are notable for their evangelical content. MSN/CW 5012-1 to MSN/CW 5012-31. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • WILLIAM B. RICHMOND LETTER. 1863. 1 letter (6 pages). A six-page folio-size letter written on 1 April 1863 by Confederate Col. William B. Richmond, then aide-de-camp to Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk, commanding I Corps of the Army of Tennessee. Directed to Polk's son Alexander, the letter suggests that the Federals are about to retire from Murfreesboro; discusses the army's disillusionment with Gen. Braxton Bragg; and describes cavalry actions of Morgan and Forrest. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2009. MSN/CW 5103-1.

  • SOUTHY L. SAVAGE LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (2 pp.) and 1 additional manuscript. Southy Littleton Savage was born in New Kent County, Virginia in 1831, the son of a planter. From 1861 to 1865 he served in the Confederate army, first with the 3rd Virginia Cavalry and subsequently in the Confederate Signal Corps. Savage's letter of 3 May 1864, written from Port Royal, Virginia on the eve of the beginning of the Overland Campaign, is addressed to a sister in Richmond. It alludes to intelligence work performed over the preceding months in King George County, along the Potomac River. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2005. MSN/CW 5039-1 to MSN/CW 5039-2. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • MARTHA FORD SETTLE CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1869. 4 letters. Martha J. Ford (1844/5-1874) was a native of Perry County, Alabama. In 1867 she married James W. Settle and moved to Missouri. The correspondence includes two wartime letters written to Martha Ford by her cousins Robert W. Nall and Henry C. Young, then serving in Company K of the 8th Alabama Infantry. The first (7 January 1862) was written by Nall from winter camp near Yorktown; the second (10 January 1863) was written jointly by Nall and Young from Fredericksburg. The group also includes several post-war letters to Settle in Missouri. MSN/CW 5019-1 to MSN/CW 5019-4.

  • SHIPMAN FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1861-1864. 18 letters. Thirteen of the 18 letters in this group were sent by Pvt. Jesse Albert Shipman (c1843-1863), Co. G, 1st North Carolina Cavalry (CSA), to his father, Andrew R. Shipman, in Henderson County, North Carolina. Albert Shipman joined the "Buncombe Rangers," as Co. G was originally known, in May 1861; he served with the 1st North Carolina Cavalry from the regiment's mustering in (October 1861) until his death, on 22 July 1863, from a wound suffered at Martinsburg, West Virginia three days earlier. From June 1862 the regiment was attached to the Army of Northern Virginia, after previous service in Virginia and North Carolina. Shipman's letters are more or less evenly dispersed over his period of service: five date from 1861, five from 1862, and three from 1863. Though all bear his name, they are written in four distinct hands, one of which is certainly that of Albert's cousin, Sgt. J. K. P. ("Polk") Shipman (1834/5-1864), also of Co. G. Whether one of the remaining hands is Albert's, or if all the letters were written for him, cannot be determined. Also included in the group are five letters written to Andrew Shipman from July 1863, by other members of Co. G: 1st Lt. Thomas L. Matthias (one letter); Pvt. A. P. Corn (one letter); Polk Shipman (two letters); and (probably) Pvt. Elias Hestiler (one letter). These deal mostly with Albert's death, and the settling of his affairs. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2006. MSN/CW 5043-1 to MSN/CW 5043-18. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • SHRIVER FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1860-1865. 6 letters and 1 note. The seven manuscript items in this group were written by Andrew Keiser Shriver (4) and Thomas Herbert Shriver (3), sons of William and Mary Owings Shriver of Union Mills, Carroll County, Maryland. Five are personal letters addressed to family members; two are letters or notes directed to the Virginia Military Institute, where Herbert Shriver was enrolled from 1863 to 1865. During the war years William Shriver identified with the Southern cause, and four of his sons served the Confederacy. Herbert Shriver (1846-1916) joined the 1st Virginia Cavalry when the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia stopped at Union Mills on 29-30 June 1863, on its way to Gettysburg (he was initially attached to Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's headquarters, to serve as a guide). Shriver was discharged later that summer and sent to V.M.I., fighting at the battle of New Market in 1864 as a "New Market cadet." For much of the war Andrew Keiser Shriver (1836-1897) worked in Richmond as a purchasing agent in the army's Medical Department. In the most significant of the letters (11 August 1863), Keiser describes tracking down Herbert in the army, effecting his release, and arranging to send him to V.M.I.; included are accounts of meetings with Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee. Several of Thomas's brief or fragmentary letters allude to his (and the family's) Roman Catholicism, including an account of a mass conducted at Staunton, Virginia in the waning days of the war by Rev. Joseph Bixio, S.J. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2004. MSN/CW 5030-1 to MSN/CW 5030-7. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • SILLERS-HOLMES FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1864. 18 letters. Fourteen of the 18 letters in this correspondence were written by Lt. Col. William W. Sillers, when that officer was serving with the 30th North Carolina Infantry in North Carolina and Virginia. Sillers (1838-1863) owned a plantation near Clinton in Sampson County, North Carolina. He was mustered in a private but rose to lieutenant (August 1861), major (on reorganization, May 1862) and lieutenant colonel (August 1863); at Antietam he served as field officer of the regiment. He was wounded at Kelly's Ford, Virginia on 7 November 1863, and died two days later. Most of Sillers' letters are addressed to his sister, Fannie Sillers Holmes, in Sampson County. All but one were written from Virginia between October 1862 and September 1863; during that time the regiment was attached to the 2nd Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Several of the letters discuss particulars of campaigns, including Lee's invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The letters also treat personal and family matters, and contain inquiries and instructions regarding Sillers' property (including his slaves). There are also four additional letters written by or to members of the Holmes household. Among these is a letter by Captain Gary F. Williams of the 30th North Carolina; directed to Fannie Holmes's husband, Dr. Allmond Holmes, it relates the details of William Sillers' death. MSN/CW 5025-1 to MSN/CW 5025-19. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • SNOW FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1864. 17 letters, several with envelopes. A group of 17 letters written by or to John Adams Snow (b. c1843), as a member of Lumsden's Battery (Co. F), 2nd Alabama Light Artillery Battalion. Snow was from a family of means in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The four letters in the collection written by Snow date from 30 May to 14 July 1864, during which time Lumsden's Battery was in the artillery reserve of the Army of Tennessee; Snow himself was the battery's quartermaster sergeant. All the letters come from the vicinity of Atlanta, where the Confederates were seeking to halt Sherman's push towards the city. Of particular note is the letter of 8 July, from a position along the Chattahoochee River, in which Snow describes casualties recently suffered by the battery. The thirteen remaining letters in the group (February 1862 to November 1863) were written to Snow by his mother, Virginia Penn Snow, or by his sister Elizabeth (b. c1833). MSN/CW 5065-1 to MSN/CW 5065-18.

  • CHARLES SOPER CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1863. 28 letters, most with envelopes. Twenty of the letters in this collection were written by Pvt. Charles Soper (1832/3-1863) during his Civil War service in Co. D, 22nd Michigan Infantry. All are addressed to his wife, Sarah, at Soper's farm near Orion in Oakland County, Michigan. Soper was mustered in on 14 August 1862, and remained with the 22nd Michigan until falling sick the following April; he died at Hospital No. 1, Nashville, 22 April 1863. Soper's letters date from 12 November 1862 to 5 April 1863. Most were written from the large Union winter encampment at Lexington, Kentucky, Camp Ella Bishop, where the regiment—attached to the Army of Kentucky—performed guard, picket, and provost duty. The collection also includes six letters written to Sarah Soper by Pvt. George W. Owen (b. 1833/4), also of the 22nd Michigan's Co. D. These describe Soper's illness, death, and burial, as well as Owen's efforts to obtain a tombstone for his friend's grave. MSN/CW 5044-1 to MSN/CW 5044-28.

  • SARAH STILSON CORRESPONDENCE. 1861-1865. 39 letters, many with envelopes. Sarah Lyra Stilson (1838-1912) was born in Burma, where her father, the Rev. Lyman Stilson, was a Baptist missionary. In 1851 the family returned to the United States, settling in Livingston County, New York; by the time of the Civil War Sarah Stilson was employed as a schoolteacher, first in Livingston County and subsequently at the Corning (NY) Academy. After the war she graduated from Vassar College. The correspondence includes 27 letters written to Stilson and twelve written by her, spread fairly evenly over the war years, from March 1861 to April 1865. The heart of the collection, comprising 27 items, is Stilson's correspondence with her friend Oliver Waldo West (b. 1842), a young newspaper editor (and future lawyer) from North Dansville, Livingston County, whom Stilson had met at a teachers' institute in 1860. In August 1862 West was mustered in to Co. K, 130th New York Infantry; he remained with the regiment, as 1st lieutenant, when it was converted to cavalry and designated the 1st New York Dragoons, in mid-1863. The following October West was detached to serve on the staff of Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasanton, commanding the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He was captured on 7 May 1864, at Todd's Tavern, and spent the balance of the war in prison. The letters exchanged by West and Stilson (16 written by West, 11 by Stilson) are long, lively, and highly opinionated. While much of the content is personal news, recounted at length, with frequent touches of humor, the letters are also very much a dialogue, an exchange of ideas and feelings about both contemporary affairs and the broader life of the mind. Also in the collection are three letters to Stilson from Capt. Henry J. Gifford of the 33rd and 49th New York Infantry, and two other soldiers letters. MSN/CW 5061-1 to MSN/CW 5061-41. [Finding Aid]

  • PETER STOKES LETTER. 1865. 1 letter (2 pages), w/envelope. A letter written on 1 January 1865 by Pvt. Peter Stokes, as a member of Co. D, 8th Alabama Cavalry (Ball's-Hatch's) Regiment, C. G. Armistead's Brigade, CSA. Stokes was a native of Greensboro, Greene County, Alabama. The letter, written from camp near Pollard in Escambia County, Alabama, mentions a recent engagement (at Pine Barren Creek, Florida, 16-17 December 1864) and requests food, clothing, and letters from home. The letter is accompanied by its wallpaper cover. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2008. MSN/CW 5083-1.

  • J.E.B. STUART LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (4 pages). A personal letter written on 22 October 1862 by Confederate Maj. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart (1833-1864), as cavalry commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. At the time of the letter Stuart was encamped near "The Bower"—the A. Stephen Dandridge home near Charles Town in the Virginia Shenandoah, where he and his staff were feted on a near-nightly basis. The addressee can be identified as Ann Overton "Nannie" Price (b. 1844/5), a cousin of Stuart's and daughter of Dr. Lucien B. Price, owner of a plantation called "Dundee" in Hanover County, Virginia. As the letter suggests, Stuart and his family had spent time at Dundee earlier in 1862, when the general was headquartered in Hanover County. The content of the letter is largely personal. Stuart chooses to address his cousin as a smitten suitor might address the (somewhat wayward) object of his affection; he sustains this gallantry through the better part of the letter. At some point in the document's history, Stuart's closing signature was clipped away as a keepsake. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2007. MSN/CW 5056-1.

  • TAYLOR FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1864. 5 letters. The five letters in this group were written from separate Northern prisoner of war camps by the brothers Jonathan Gibson Taylor (1839-1864) and Robert Walker Taylor (1840-1902), of Yelvington, Daviess County, Kentucky. Both were Confederate cavalrymen, who served in Kentucky regiments attached to commands of Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan. Gibson Taylor's three letters of June-August 1864 were written from prisons at Louisville and at Rock Island, Illinois (where he died on 14 October). Robert's two letters were written in October 1864 from the prison at Camp Douglas in Chicago; the second of these mentions Gibson's death. Acquired through the generosity of Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2005. MSN/CW 5033-1 to MSN/CW 5033-5. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • THOMAS FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1862-1865 (bulk 1862-1863). 50 letters and 1 note; many with envelopes. Thirty-four of the letters in this group were written by George Thomas (1821-1905) to his wife, Minerva Everton Thomas (1831-1868), during his tenure as regimental quartermaster of the 53rd Indiana Infantry (March 1862 to May 1864). An additional eleven wartime letters were written by Minerva Thomas to her husband. George Thomas owned a farm in Ohio Township, Spencer County, Indiana, near the Ohio River community of Rockport. All but two of the letters date from January 1862 to November 1863. For much of this time the regiment was stationed in western Tennessee and northern Mississippi; it was involved in several key episodes in that theater, most notably the sieges of Corinth and Vicksburg. George Thomas's letters include much on the logistics of troop movement and supply up and down the waterways of the Mississippi Valley. Several of Minerva Thomas's letters to her husband describe Confederate guerilla actions in the vicinity of Rockport. The group includes four additional wartime letters addressed to the Thomases, including one written to Minerva by her nephew, Ezra B. Sherwin, then with the 14th Wisconsin Infantry. MSN/CW 5014-1 to MSN/CW 5014-51. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • HERBERT BENEZET TYSON LETTERS. 1865. 5 letters. Herbert Benezet Tyson was born in 1842 or 1843 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the United States Naval Academy's class of 1862, and served in the Union navy as midshipman and lieutenant from 1861 to 1865. The letters, dated 24 February to 5 May 1865, describe Tyson's service as navigator aboard the U.S.S. Connecticut, on an extended cruise undertaken by that ship to and around the Caribbean. Much of the content is dedicated to descriptions of the Connecticut's ports of call. All the letters were written to Tyson's brother, Carroll S. Tyson, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. MSN/CW 5010-1 to MSN/CW 5010-5. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • VICKERS FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 1861-1877 (bulk 1862-1863). 80 letters, many with envelopes; 5 additional manuscripts. Most of the items in this group are personal letters written between members of the Vickers family, of West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania, during the Civil War. The figures central to the correspondence are as follows: Joseph Vickers (1811-1864), a potter, and his wife, Elizabeth Painter Vickers (1813-1863); the couple's four children, Jonathan (b. 1838), Joseph P. or J. P. (1840-1914), Eugene (1841-1924), and Lydia Anna (1845-1936); and a cousin of the Vickers children, Lydia Ward. All were Quakers, with Abolitionist sympathies, and some, at least, attended Longwood Meeting House in Chester County, home of the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends. Two of the Vickers sons served in the army, Eugene as a private in Co. C, 97th Pennsylvania Infantry (September 1861 to September 1864), and J. P. as assistant surgeon in the 50th Pennsylvania Infantry (August 1861 to July 1864). The father, Joseph Vickers, had several war-related civilian jobs, in Virginia and at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The eldest son, Jonathan, also worked at Camp Curtin. The greater number of the letters are addressed to Eugene Vickers in South Carolina, though he is the author of only three, including one describing the battle of Secessionville, 16 June 1862. J. P. Vickers, the surgeon, is the author of 14 of the letters, written mostly from South Carolina and Virginia. Of the remaining family members, Elizabeth Vickers wrote or contributed to 27 letters, Lydia Ward ten, Jonathan Vickers ten, Joseph Vickers seven, and Anna Vickers four. Most of the letters fall between the end of 1861 and June of 1863, prior to the deaths of Elizabeth (8 September 1863) and Joseph (4 February 1864). MSN/CW 5059-1 to MSN/CW 5059-82.

  • "H. B. W." LETTER. 1862. 1 letter (6 pp.). A letter written from 5-18 December 1862 from Camp Hamilton near Nashville, by a Union soldier identifiable only as "H. B. W." The letter is addressed to Miss Tirzah Vail in Kewanee, Henry County, Illinois. If the author also came from Henry County, as seems likely, he may have belonged to either the 27th or the 51st Illinois Infantry, both of which were then in Nashville. The author writes of camp life, and advances opinions about the army and the war. MSN/CW 5021-1.

  • ISAAC IRA WHITE LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (2 pp.). Isaac Ira White (1841-1864) was born in Frederick County, Virginia. From 1862 until his death at the Wilderness in May 1864, he served in the Confederate cavalry, first with Company C, 24th Virginia Cavalry Battalion, and subsequently with Company H, 11th Virginia Cavalry Regiment (part of the "Laurel Brigade.") The letter, written in April 1864 from camp in Rockbridge County, Virginia, is addressed to his sister. In it, White mentions several fellow soldiers, including a substitute sent in place of a conscripted Frederick County man. He also writes of the scarcity of provisions in camp, and expresses concern about the hardships his family is enduring at home. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2005. MSN/CW 5031-1. [Introduction, Images & Transcriptions]

  • LEONARD WILLIAMS LETTERS. 1861-1865. 127 letters. The greater part of this collection consists of 115 wartime personal letters written by Confederate cavalry officer Leonard Williams to his wife Anna Laval Williams, in Greenville, South Carolina. Leonard Williams (1823-1908) was born on his father's Sycamore Grove Plantation, Newberry District, South Carolina; he was teacher and principal at Newberry Academy and, from ca. 1854, a merchant and planter in Greenville. He served in the Confederate army for nearly four years, as orderly sergeant in Brooks Troop in the Hampton Legion cavalry (1861-62) and, with reorganization, as captain of Co. K, 2nd South Carolina Cavalry. Williams participated in the Eastern Theater's major campaigns of 1862-63, including the Peninsula, Antietam, and Gettysburg. In Spring 1864 the 2nd South Carolina was withdrawn to the Carolinas, where it remained for the duration of the war. Williams's letters to Anna range in date from 18 July 1861 to 11 February 1865; together they provide a sustained narrative of his years of service. Also in the collection are 12 additional wartime family letters, including one directed by Leonard Williams to his slaves. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2009-2012. MSN/CW 5068-1 to MSN/CW 5068-132. [Finding Aid]

  • WILLIAMS-NEWTON LETTERS. 1862-1865. 27 letters, some with envelopes. Twenty-three of the letters in this group were written by Pvt. Henry C. Williams, during his service with Co. G, 108th New York Infantry (August 1862 to February 1864) and, subsequently, with the army's Veteran Reserve Corps. Williams was born in 1839, on a farm in Phelps Township, Ontario County, New York. He served in the Army of the Potomac (2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, II Corps) until suffering a shoulder wound at Gettysburg; after seven months' convalescence he was assigned to the 20th Regiment V.R.C., at Point Lookout Prison. Williams's letters range in date from August 1862 to January 1865, and are evenly spaced over that span. All but one are addressed to the household of William B. and Salina Newton, of Parma Township, Monroe County, New York (where Williams appears to have lived prior to enlisting). The author is literate, and committed to the Union cause; the letters treat social and political aspects of the war as well as military ones, and are imbued with Williams's own evangelical faith—something he appears to have shared with the Newtons. Four additional letters (April 1864 and January 1865) were written by the Newtons' eldest son, Pvt. Arthur G. Newton (b. 1840/41), who enlisted with Henry Williams and served in Co. G of the 108th New York until his discharge (from leg wounds suffered at Spotsylvania) in January 1865. MSN/CW 5047-1 to MSN/CW 5047-28.

  • GEORGE WASHINGTON WRIGHT LETTER. 1864. 1 letter (2 pages). A personal letter written on 30 June 1864 by Confederate 1st Lt. George Washington Wright (1839-1918) of the 1st Alabama Cavalry. The letter, written from the vicinity of Meridian, Mississippi, includes Washington's thoughts on the future path of the war. Acquisition funded by Robert and Beverly O'Grady, 2011. MSN/CW 5105-1.

  • ANNIE YOUNG LETTERS. 1862-1894 (bulk 1862-1865). 29 letters and 1 additional manuscript. Eighteen of the letters in this group were written by various Union military personnel to Miss Annie E. Young (b. c1837), a Philadelphia schoolteacher, during the Civil War. Five different authors are represented, the most prolific being Samuel Palmer Coates (nine letters, January 1862 to August 1863), writing as a seaman aboard the U.S.S Hartford, flagship of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron under David G. Farragut. Coates's 8-page letter of 18 April 1863 describes the ship's movements up and down the Mississippi over the previous month, during the campaigns against Port Hudson and Vicksburg. There are also four letters written by Thomas F. Goudy, mostly as carpenter's mate aboard the U.S.S. Susquehanna (January 1862 to April 1864); one by John Eva, aboard un identified vessel in the Potomac Flotilla (November 1861); two by Pvt. Charles Schlecht, Co. I, 3rd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery (July 1864 to May 1865); and two by an unidentified soldier in Virginia (May to July 1862). MSN/CW 5063-1 to MSN/CW 5063-22.
  Related Collections:   Colonial & Revolutionary America Early National & Antebellum America American Civil War Modern America Sports
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