Crayon print of William Humphrey Hardison (1841-1870), Co. H., 1st Tennessee Infantry CSA. Son of Asa and Mary Ann Hardison. Having survived the war and just before his 30th birthday, Hardison was ambushed and killed by a neighbor over a property...
Carved Minie balls and bullets, belt buckles, Civil War military buttons and corps badges. Collected from across Tennessee. The carved rifle bullets are particularly fine, having been carved in the shapes of death's heads, cannon, coffins, "Yank,"...
Spencer carbine repeating firearm. It holds seven .52 caliber cartridges in a tubular magazine that is housed in the buttstock. It was a popular firearm for cavalrymen because they could fire several times without having to reload after each...
Pvt. Alexander B. Walker was in the 12th (Day's) Tenn. Cav. Bn., CSA, and part of the January 1863 retreat of Bragg's army from Murfreesboro, Tenn. In describing the battle, Walker wrote, "I have seen the elephent [sic]," a common phrase among...
A letter from Frederick M. Williamson to Alice O. McBee. Williamson wrote from General Hospital No. 2, 3rd Division Ward in Lynchburg, Va. He describes his illness and only having a blanket and a bed of straw to rest on. He discusses wanting to...
Letter from Pvt. John N. Warlick, Co. G, 55th (Brown's) Tenn. Vol. Inf. Regt., CSA, to his wife Nancy. The letter was written at the start of the 55th's encampment on Island No. 10, less than one month before its surrender to Union Gen. John Pope...
Small, leather-bound volume with handwritten will and codicils of Philip Van Horn Weems of Bon Aqua, Tenn. Weems recounts having been wounded at Missionary Ridge and has been mortally wounded on July 22, 1864, outside of Atlanta. He asks in writing...
Three page letter begins, "This is our eighth day in the boonies, and tomorrow we might go back to Lai Khe." He writes of having been a squad leader for several days now ("8 men including myself") because of the illness of another sergeant.
Letter from Chistopher Ammons tells about having seven men killed, including their company commander, and one wounded in a Claymore attack during a patrol. "They killed Capt. Tellers, a Capt. From intel[l]igence, a Capt. From mortar platoon, 3...
Advertisement for the estate sale of the late D. W. Clark by the executor of his estate, Lucy G. Clark. These items are listed for sale: one mare, one mule, one gold watch, library case, bureau, wash stand, rockaway and harness, center table,...
Letter from Arthur H. Harris to his brother George Carroll Harris in Nashville. He writes of the pervading excitement that has surrounded the 1860 presidential election in his area. Though he is glad the contest is over, he acknowledges the death...
This nine-page letter written from Arthur H. Harris in Monroe, Louisiana, to his brother George Carroll Harris in Nashville is a conscious political treatise. The author is advocating and justifiying the secession of Louisiana at the upcoming...
Two-page letter from Elisha W. Harris to his son George Carroll Harris of Nashville. He writes from his plantation Waco Place in Louisiana of the war being upon them with bloody consequence. He has abandoned his efforts to cling to the union and...
Letter from Thomas Crutchfield Jr. to James R. Hood. Crutchfield makes an effort to prove his loyalty to the Union by recounting his opposition to secession, his informing the Federals of troop movements, his supplying of the Union army with...
Letter from Joseph Gerald Branch in Davis Lake Plantation, Arkansas, to his wife Mary in Maury County, Tennessee. He writes about his plans to send her $15,000 in U.S. Treasury notes to invest in real estate to curb currency depreciation and insure...
Four-page letter from Mary Guthrie Latta to her husband Samuel details news of their children and other family members. References are made to a scarcity of food and civilian transportation and rumors of battle. Mary proclaims her hope that her...
Excerpts from a diary, 1834-1865, and memoir of early life, written by Jesse Cox (1793-1879), a Primitive Baptist minister and resident of Williamson County, Tennessee. He describes the hardships of life as an itinerant preacher, some religious...
Two-page letter to his son George Carroll Harris of Nashville, Elisha W. Harris writes from his plantation Waco Place in Louisiana of attending a local political meeting. He details the zest the crowd displays for politics and the presidential...
