Scope and Content Note Letters, documents, and photographs created or collected by Jesse C. Bliss or his granddaughter, Jesse Elizabeth Hill Durrett. The papers consist of fourteen letters written by Bliss from 1862 to 1864 while serving in the Union Army; genealogical documents pertaining to the Bliss family; a small collection of documents gathered by Elizabeth Durrett to supplement her claim to a widow's pension; photographs of Bliss, the Durretts, and unidentified family members and acquaintances....

Scope and Content Note The collection consists of 17 letters written by Milton Chambers while in Helena and Little Rock to his brother, Armory K. Chambers, in Glenwood, Iowa. The earliest is dated June 14, 1863, and the latest December 28, 1864. The majority of the letters describe routine garrison duties and troop morale, but a vivid description of the Red River Expedition accurately documents Milton's combat experience. Milton was a prolific writer, and refers many times to other letters he wrote to members of...

Scope and Contents The collection consists of 36 letters written by John M. Page to his mother and to his sister, Maria, while Page was serving in the Union Army (first with the Long Island 3rd Detachment, Company B, and later with the 7th Massachusetts Battery, in the corps of Captain Newman W. Storer) from 1863-1865 during the U.S. Civil War. Topics include discussions of his experiences at camp and in battle at Mobile, Alabama; finances; family, particularly an Uncle Smith; and requests for items to be sent...

Scope and Content Note Deposition and Statement Deposition, dated December 26, 1862, signed and notorized by Chaplain J.G. Forman, 3rd Missouri Infantry, accusing Brigadier General Frederick Steele of returning freedom seeking people to their former enslavers near Helena, Arkansas, in September 1862. Additional statement of charges and specifications, circa January 1863, accusing Steele of protecting the property of high ranking Confederates and drunkeness. Steele does not appear to have answered these...