Telegram, 1862 May 4, J. J. Astor, Yorktown, Va. to Pelatiah Perit, [New York, N. Y.]. 3 p. on 2 leaves ; 22 cm. Astor is writing to Perit who is president of New York City Chamber of Commerce to tell him about the evacuation of Confederate forces from Yorktown, Va. and tells him to use the information as he sees fit.
Letter from Captain George Bouton to his seven-year-old daughter Mollie from Yorktown, Virginia during the American Civil War. He describes the condition of Yorktown as "an old and dilapidated town", General Daniel Harvey Hill as a commander, describing some of the local families in Yorktown including the Fry family, and having a "free Negro from Madison County for a servant, a very indifferent cook & indifferent servant [in] everyday."
A letter from an Union soldier, Charles C., at Yorktown, Virginia, to an unknown recipient, discusses his anxiety in preparation for the siege of Yorktown.
A letter from Charles E. Turner, Yorktown, to "Brother". He describes the skirmishes at Blackwater and Suffolk, Virginia.
A letter from Edward R. Yoder to his cousin E.J. Ransome describes a school in Yorktown, Virginia that is educating freed men by a Northern Quaker, Nancy Battie and other teachers. He also tells of an attempt to recruit these blacks for the army and local home defense unit. He remarks on the raising of a bell, which once belonged to a Yorktown church, in the schoolhouse.
A letter from Franklin Moore to his mother, describes the wound his friend Andrew Read received from an artillery shell. He speaks of a fight at Yorktown being the last one his unit will see.