Confederate States of America collection

The collection contains correspondence and official documents originating from various CSA government departments and from individual Confederate states, 1861-1865. The bulk of the material is bureaucratic in nature (e.g. reports and official correspondence), but there are a few letters from private citizens, and many of the documents, such as army discharge papers and medical certificates, concern particular individuals. Information about specific Civil War battles and events can be found throughout the collection in letters and reports. The papers are organized into three series: Correspondence, Documents, and Other Material.

Series I, Correspondence , is organized into two subseries: Correspondence of Jefferson Davis and Other Correspondence. The first consists of letters to President Davis, from members of his Cabinet and from citizens, and four brief letters of transmittal from Davis to the CSA Congress. Letters from Cabinet members include two detailed reports from Stephen R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy: one concerns a naval engagment at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1862; the other concerns the seizure of the CSS Florida in the neutral port of Bahia, Brazil, by the USS Wachusett on October 7, 1864. One of the three letters from citizens is from two women in Georgia who offer to undertake dangerous missions behind enemy lines for the Confederate cause.

The second subseries, Other Correspondence, consists chiefly of correspondence between cabinet members and congressmen concerning government business, but also contains letters from Army generals and other officers reporting on military actions, including the battle of Malvern Hill. Also included are letters from the Spanish and French Consuls, and a letter from Indian Agent Douglas Cooper concerning the Confederacy's relations with the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.

Series II, Documents , consists of reports, estimates of expenditures and appropriations, petitions, forms, passes, receipts, certificates, orders, bonds, tax records, and other official documents issued or collected by the CSA and by individual Confederate state governments. It is organized into nine subseries: Army, Congress, Department of State, Medical Purveyor's Office, Navy, Treasury Department, War Department, Individual State Governments, and Other Documents.

Army documents concerning specific regiments or divisions include field returns from the Second Georgia Battalion and General R. H. Anderson's Division; Casualty and Capture reports from General William Mahone's Division (formerly Anderson's Division); a report on the actions of General Rode's Brigade at Seven Pines; and a guard report of the Thirty-Third North Carolina Regiment. Other Army papers include a "List of Ordnance left on Morris Island on the night of its evacuation," a "Ladies' address to the Soldiers of Longstreet's Corps.," and documents concerning prisoners of war and military hospitals.

Other CSA government documents include petitions to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Senate to raise the salaries of government employees due to rapid inflation of Confederate currency; special orders suspending Habeas Corpus in Salisbury, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia; documents from Mississippi and South Carolina concerning the use of slaves in the CSA Army; resolutions passed in Pocahonta County, Virginia, concerning the inadequacy of defenses provided by the Confederacy against invasion; and several proposed designs for an alternate Confederate flag.

Other Documents contains a statement or appeal by former United States Acting Secretary of War William R. Drinkard regarding his neglected application for the post of Chief of the Bureau of War in the Confederate Government, and a pass issued by the United States Army in 1867, granting a North Carolina citizen permission to carry a gun.

Series III, Other Material , contains paper and envelopes said to have been taken from the Confederate Congress Hall during the seizure of Richmond, and two canvas letter or money bags.