McDowell of Talbot Co., Shiloh, Bellevue, and Griffin, Ga. writes to her cousin Amanda Sarah Boyd, Oktibbeha Co., Miss., conveying news of family events, weather & farming, church & social activities, former servants, and trips. Of interest is an account of the burning of her home. The collection also contains a few letters from other family members including an 1864 letter from John McDowell, a soldier in Polk's regiments referring to the battles of Mansfield and Jenkins' Ferry.

Family correspondence and Civil War letters of Confederate soldiers James H. Reaves and John C. Ursery written from Virginia and Tennessee.

One of the most intriguing and storied episodes of the Civil War, the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign has heretofore been related only from the Confederate point of view. Moving seamlessly between tactical details and analysis of strategic significance, Peter Cozzens presents a balanced, comprehensive account of a campaign that has long been romanticized but little understood. He offers new interpretations of the campaign and the reasons for Stonewall Jackson's success, demonstrates instances in which the mythology that has come to shroud the campaign has masked errors on Jackson's part, and provides the first detailed appraisal of Union leadership in the Valley Campaign, with some surprising conclusions.