Scope and Contents This collection consists of letters written by or on the behalf of Benjamin Schwartz, who was stationed in Virginia with the 5th Pennsylvania Calvary, Company F. The letters primarily document a brother's concern over his family's health and money he sends to his sister. He includes limited discussion of skirmishes, troop movement, taking and being taken prisoner, and recurrent predictions that the war will end soon. Schwartz mentions that the Union camp at Williamsburg, Virginia, was burned...

Content Description

Letter dated 1862 April 18 from Camp on Chessman's Creek addressed to his parents. Everett was in "I" company of the 7th New Jersey Volunteers, 3rd Brigade of Hooker's Division. He describes his unit's travel to Norfolk and then the Yorktown area and the anticipation of a hard battle with the Confederate troops who are assumed to be numerous and well fortified.

Content Description

This collection contains two autograph books documenting short verses and signatures from various individuals. The autograph books have different owners including one identified only as Thamison and another as Mary. The books have different cover styles and contain autographs from Elizabeth Schooley Dutton (1839-1927) and her family.

Content Description Four page letter from Union Officer 2nd Lieutenant Ira Fox Gensel of the 4th United States Regular Infantry from a camp near Roper's meeting House in James City County, Virginia dated May 11, 1862. He describes his march into Williamsburg after the battle that took place in that city and the high casualties as a result of that battle. He calls Williamsburg a beautiful city but the court houses, William and Mary College, and all of the churches are used as hospitals and are filled. Gensel...

Content Description

One sheet document showing the lease of equipment from Lt. H. Hayes to H. Allen of Company F of the 17th Regiment of the Confederate Virginia Infantry at Brooks Station, Virginia in June of 1863. Allen leases one shirt, blouse, three pairs of drawers, two pairs of shoes, four pairs of stockings, 11 forage caps, one knapsack, four haversacks, and ten boot straps.

Scope and Contents

Letter from Jno. A. Hunter, Medical Director, S.W. Va., C.G. Hospital, Charleston, Va. (W. Va.). to Major General William Wing Loring, Charleston, Va. (W. Va.). He reports on the sanitary condition of the army, casualties and wounded from fighting at Fayette Court House, Cotton Hill, Montgomery's, and Charleston and enemy losses at Fayetteville.

Scope and Contents Two page letter to his wife informing her of the voting process within his regiment as he was a commissioner for counting the votes. From his account, Billy Smith beat Bob Scott by 53 votes in his precinct. It is assumed that this vote was for leader of the 17th Virginia Infantry Regiment. He also gives her instructions regarding bolts of fabric sent to her and her mother to be used entirely for fitting the regiment with uniforms. Lastly, he cannot give sound advice in regard to her...

Content Description One page letter from William A. Finney to his wife, Elizabeth dated May 15, 1862. Finney reports that their son George W., who enlisted in the Confederate Army into company "D" of the 24th VA Infantry, was in the battle of Williamsburg and reported injured. H he was unsure at the time of the seriousness of his son's wounds as he received varying reports that he was shot in the thigh or below the knee. Public records and Virginia pensions reported in the Virginia Acts of Assembly indicate...

Scope and Contents Papers, circa 1940s, of Richard Williams, an African-American soldier stationed in Alaska during World War II. Includes a diary, in which he describes the weather, fishing and other recreational activities, and his duties. There are photographs and postcards that have been glued into the diary, which depict the local post office covered in snow, the towns of Juneau and Sitka, as well as Williams and other people that he met. There are also loose photographs, which seem to have come out of...