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The Civil War Collection is an artificial collection of material, chiefly 1861-1865, pertaining to the American Civil War including items from both Union and Confederate forces. The collection includes official correspondence, general and special orders, descriptions of campaigns and battles, articles concerning the war, and artifacts. There are pardons, poems, songs, autographs, maps, muster rolls, pen and ink sketches of camp life, engineers' drawings, and a memorandum of signals used by Confederate steamers when approaching batteries.

One handwritten account book from the Civil War-era, possibly for a household or a business. The author's name is not recorded. The book lists the names of around thirty individuals, their occupation if available, and the debits and credits for each person. Occupational examples include cook, table maid, dairy maid, miller, and coachman. Some of the entries include wages, rent payments and charges, the cost of food, and other items. There is also an entry for transactions from the estate of one Susan Cook. The account book contains an index of all the entries including the page numbers. The pages are numbered through 168, but the last quarter of the account book contains blank pages.

The papers of Clarence L. Musgrave, Fairmont mortician and editor, include family correspondence (1861-1936); photographs; account books of his father, Eli, and his grandfather Zebulon Musgrave; record books and correspondence pertaining to the operation of the Eli Musgrave & Sons funeral home and the "Fairmont Republican" (ca.1895-1898). Other materials include a ledger of the John Carlin Camp, No.8, Sons of Veterans, United States Army (1887-1894); a record book of the Ladies Aid Society of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Fairmont (1901-1906); an account book of the estate of William Shaver (1860-1868); an account book of the Marion County Republican Executive Committee (1908-1910); membership and dues records of the Fairmont chapter of the Sons of the Revolution; and class notes from Fairmont State Normal School (1895).

Ledgers, bankbooks, and account books, 1882-1900, of C. L. Leake and Company, Licking, Goochland County, Va. The company appears to have included a sawmill and flourmill.

Daybook, 1803-1805, of the Cloverdale Furnace Foundry (Botetourt County, Virginia) and of an unidentified general merchandise dealer of Lexington, Virginia.

Account books, January 1890-January 1891, of C. L. Weast, Shenandoah Institute, Dayton, Va.

The collection also contains miscellaneous manuscripts and account books. Included in this material are: land grants, 1761 and 1766, for land in Fairfax and Frederick counties, Va.; eighty-five survey maps of Frederick, Fauquier, and Loudoun counties, Va. and Berkeley and Hampshire counties, W. Va.; road petitions, 1743-1828, for Frederick County; affidavits for Revolutionary War service; correspondence, 1923-1930, of the Improved Order of Redmen, Great Council of Virginia; letters written to W. H. H. Flick; account books of merchants in Frederick County, , Lexington, Va. and Harrisonburg, Va.; and account books of the Richmond Whig (1837), the Lexington Gazette; and the Southern Collegian (student newspaper at Washington and Lee College). There is also a daybook which contains copies of letters, notes and bonds written by Philip Nelson to Powhatan R. Page; notes on the Washington and Custis families and the building of "Arlington"; and notes concerning John Randolph of Roanoke and the Underwood Constitutional Convention in Richmond.