Letter from Benjamin Yarbrough to his wife Mary Jane. He states that he left his camp to visit home but returned without trouble and "they never said a thing" about it. He also comments on the amount of money he will send home. Flag stationary.
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...
A note written in blue by General Leonidas Polk telling James P. Wood to not let the cotton through the railways without his permission so that it would not fall in the hands of the Federal Army. Wood was in charge of the Memphis and Ohio Railroad...
Letter from Pvt. John N. Warlick, Co. G, 55th Tenn. Vol. Inf. Regt., CSA, to his wife Nancy, written days after his capture on Island No. 10 and imprisonment at Camp Chase, Ohio. He assures his wife he is well and in "comfortable quarters." Of the...
Letter from John A. Hickerson, Company B, 2nd Arkansas Infantry, C. S. A., to his father John D. Hickerson. The letter is the first he wrote to his father after enlisting. The author describes his movements from Arkansas to Knoxville and back. The...
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...
Five-page letter written from John S. Brien in Nashville, Tennessee, to R. M. C[ornin], Esq. in Cincinnati, Ohio. The author expresses his views on secession, the Union, and Southern Rights as well as his hope for compromise. Says Brien, " I...
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 that he has not heard from his wife or children since August. He desires to know whether Mary has received the $15,000 in...
Four-page letter from Mary Guthrie Latta to her husband, Samuel, conveys her anxiety at not hearing from him and her disappointment both in his defeat for promotion to Lt. Colonel and in his inability to come home for Christmas. She also relates...
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...
Excerpts from the diary of William Luther Bigelow Lawrence. He details joining the Nashville Guards, the scarcity of provisions, and the surrender of Nashville. He proclaims the trampling of private rights by Federal soldiers, the fleeing of his...
Letter from Jane Smith Washington of Springfield, Tennessee, to her son, William L. Washington in Toronto, Canada, describing a confrontation with Federal troops. Mrs. Washington describes an extremely violent confrontation with Federal troops. In...
Letter from Gamble Rutledge to his father, G. R. Rutledge, concerning his brother Robert's regiment, his parents' desire to move to Georgia, his brigade's activities, his desire to change his position in the regiment, and the status of his wounded...
