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Letter of John Ewing, Corporal of the 16th Ohio Infantry, to his wife and children, written from the Kanawha Valley in the vicinity of Charleston, (West) Virginia (2 November 1862). Ewing writes that he is in good health and describes recent encounters with Confederate troops. He describes in detail his experience as a Confederate prisoner, including a time he saw a "Company" of Indians with the Confederates. He also remarks on the opinions, mood, and character of the Confederate soldiers he met while in captivity. Ewing writes about conditions and happenings at the Union camp where he was currently stationed. The collection includes a transcript of the letter.

Personal and business papers of the Lewis family, mainly of John D. (1800-1882), Charles C., Sr. (b.1839), and Charles C., Jr. (b.1865), of Kanawha County. For the period 1825-1875 there are papers of various members of the Ruffner, Dickinson, and Wilson families of West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and other states. The business papers relate to farming operations, the purchase and sale of slaves, salt manufacturing and trade, the Old Sweet Springs Company, coal, iron, oil, lumbering, railroads, and real estate in Kanawha, Clay, Boone, Fayette, and Nicholas counties. There are newspaper clippings, speeches, and other papers reflecting the Lewis' interests in the Democratic Party in the period 1914-1920. Settlement papers and correspondence regarding the estates of John D. Lewis, and Joel, Daniel, and Andrew Ruffner are in the collection. The personal papers include diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, and letters. Travel accounts in the United States, South America, and Europe are given in the correspondence, as well as comments on schools in West Virginia and Virginia; the building of a church in Kanawha County in 1834; missionary work in Colombia, South America, 1874-1875; Civil War and postwar conditions in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri; conditions at Camp Chase, in the Civil War; and material relating to World War I.

Correspondence, speeches, essays, financial notes, certificates, an account book, a class attendance book for 1860, and a term paper prepared for a Glenville College, West Virginia, history class entitled, 'The Aaron D. Peterson Family.' The correspondence contains letters written by David T. Peterson to family and friends while serving with Federal forces in the Civil War. Subjects include schools, politics, farming, Civil War camps, units, troop movements, and battles at Droop Mountain, Moorefield, and Winchester, Virginia.

A rough draft history of the main roads covering segments of highways, such as State Route 39 between Huntersville and Marlinton, in the form of a travel brochure. Mentions frontier and pre-Civil War history of such places as Mill Point and Lewisburg, but its focus is on the Civil War history of Pocahontas, Greenbrier, and Randolph counties. Significant people and places mentioned are: The Great Warrior Path, Droop Mountain, Lewisburg, White Sulphur Springs, W. W. Averell, Huntersville, Hillsboro, Mill Point, Marlinton, Greenbrier River, Edray, Robert E. Lee, W. W. Loring, Big Springs, Cheat Mountain, Allegheny Mountain, and Knapps Creek.

This collection contains documents and other material regarding the Civil War, including a diary, letters, reports, clippings, a muster roll, and other material. The majority of items in the collection regard the Civil War in West Virginia. Items within the collection are facsimiles and photocopies. Highlights of the collection include: the diary of Alex McGraw, who served with the West Virginia First Light Artillery; a letter from Captain Robert Coles of Virginia Fortieth Infantry, Wise Legion to Colonel Lucius Davis requesting certification to purchase necessary equipment; a letter from General John B. Floyd to A.W.G. Davis giving authorization to raise supplies for the Confederate Army of the Kanawha; a morning report of the Fifth Brigade, Confederate Army of the Northwest commanded by William Booth Taliaferro; and a muster roll of the Second Virginia Volunteer Cavalry, Company G. See "Scope and Content Note" for more detail.

Records collected by Robert Fonner regarding Tyler County, West Virginia (WV) and also the Civil War. There are clippings (1958-1994) regarding the histories of Middlebourne (WV), Marietta (Ohio), and Tyler County High School. Civil War papers include three letters (1862), one short note (1863), short supply list (undated), discharge for John Brady of Ohio (1866), and three pension documents (1875-1879). There are also over 60 Tyler County appointments and commissions documents (1815-1860s); and Tyler County polling records for delegates (1815, 1857), and for creating a new county, Pleasants, from Tyler, Wood, and Ritchie Counties (1845, 1848, 1850). See access and use for separations; see scope and content note for additional information.

Most of the letters are to Helen M. Robinson of Fetterman, Taylor County, West Virginia, from relatives and friends. Subjects discussed include housekeeping, fashions, farming, schools, religion, and the Civil War from both the Confederate and Union perspectives. There are frequent, specific references to the political and military state-of-affairs in the upper Ohio Valley region.

Papers of the Tavenner family of western Virginia, including correspondence, newspaper clippings, maps, and other material. Much of the material in this collection regards the Civil War. The Tavenner family was sympathetic to the Confederate cause. One member of the family, William Cabell Tavenner, served in the Confederate army; his letters are part of the collection. This collection also contains material related to families allied to the Tavenner family by marriage, particularly the Withers family, including material regarding Alexander Scott Withers and his book Chronicles of Border Warfare . The collection is organized into six series, including: 1. Genealogy (1868-1952); 2. Correspondence (1778-1953); 3. Maps (1863, 1939, undated); 4. Miscellaneous (1822-1950, undated); 5. Newspaper Clippings (1829-1931); and 6. Oversize Materials (1829-1861). Please see "Scope and Content Note" and "Historical Note" for further information.

Diary of Uz Barns of Ritchie County, a volunteer in the Union Army who served as a private in the 10th West Virginia Infantry. The diary covers the years 1862 through 1865 and contains daily entries, mainly regarding weather conditions. Barns also wrote about marches and distances marched per day; encampments at various places in eastern West Virginia and in Winchester, Virginia; and engagements with Confederate forces at Beverly, (West) Virginia, Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, and Deep Bottom, Henrico County, Virginia. He also records number of prisoners taken. Barns was in Richmond at the time of Lee's surrender and mentions the number of cannon and the supply of shells and powder left there by the Confederates.

A transcription of a diary of a Civil War soldier from West Virginia who was the third man from the state to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. There are extensive notes, including maps, and commentary by the transcriber that provide a background interpretation to the stark factual entries of the diary. Entries in the diary refer to camp life, Civil War battles, mustering out and Washington, DC at the end of the war. There are entries for the remainder of the year which indicate post-war adjustments and economic conditions of the author. McWhorter, though a man of few words, does provide many statistical details as to prices paid, rations received and wages earned. A member throughout the entire war of the West Virginia Third Cavalry Regiment, McWhorter was in Gen. George Custer's illustrious Third Cavalry Division which in 1865 was stationed in the Shenandoah Valley and along the line at the siege of Petersburg. Custer's forces pursued, harassed and effectively stymied the movement of Lee's forces from Petersburg to Lynchburg. The Battle of Sailors Creek, a part of the successful Union campaign that stopped Lee at Appomattox, was where this Lewis County native distinguished himself for the Medal of Honor by capturing the battle flag of the Tennessee Sixth Infantry Regiment.