The collection consists of selected correspondence and documents related to the American Civil War. Included are letters from individuals in the army to their families or friends describing their experiences in the war and their life in army camps. There are letters of orders from army generals, with orders for brigades, pardons, promotions, and one about the return of army prisoners, and one of a Confederate prisoner describing a Civil War prison at Point Lookout, Maryland. Correspondents include Henry M. Bond and Luke Lyman who wrote letters to James Walker about their life in Union army camps; others are Henry L. Benning, John Archibald Campbell, Gen. Charles H. T. Collis, and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. There are circulars, "Returns for Provisions" for Fort Sumter, S.C.; receipts for food and supplies for army personnel and for the horses; a "Parole of Honor" (1865) for J. C. Whitwell; and a musters roll for Capt. S. D. Rainey. Also included are a piece of a Confederate flag, a drawing of "Rebel" and Union "Picket Pits" at Fort Sedgwick ("Fort Hell") in Petersburg, Virginia, and a manuscript poem titled "Lines by a Confederate Major," dated May 1865 and written on the back of a Confederate one dollar note. In addition, there is a sample of paper manufactured by the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War.