The material consists of personal correspondence between Patrick Cleburne and family members, Civil War correspondence, and pages from the Cleburne family Bible listing marriages, births, and deaths, 1823-1842. At least five of the letters have been published in Howell and Elizabeth Purdue, Pat Cleburne: Confederate General (Hillsboro, TX; Hill Jr. College Press, 1973; and second edition revised, Tuscaloosa, AL: Portals Press, 1977). Positive photocopies are provided of all the material.

Personal correspondence between Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne and family members and military officers. Post-war documents are primarily letters from family members and pages from the Cleburne family Bible. Cleburne, an Irish immigrant who settled in Helena (Phillips County), rose from the ranks during the course of the Civil War and was killed in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, 1864. Five of the letters in this collection were published by Richard Howell Purdue and Elizabeth Purdue in Pat Cleburne: Confederate General: A Definitive Biography (Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press, 1973).