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This collection contains correspondence and writings related to Ira B. Sampson's service in the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment during the Civil War. Most of the materials concern the Battle of Plymouth and Sampson's subsequent escapes from Confederate prisons.

This collection (9 items) contains correspondence and writings related to Ira B. Sampson's service in the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment during the Civil War. The Correspondence and Documents series (4 items) includes a letter that Sampson wrote to "Dearest May," his future wife, after being sent to Plymouth, North Carolina, in February 1864. Sampson received one letter from [Arthur] Smith, another veteran of the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, in November 1884, containing Smith's recollections about the Battle of Plymouth. Also included are general orders for the Union Army's Sub-district of the Albemarle (February 15, 1864) and an undated casualty roll for the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment, Company G, listing the names of men who were killed, imprisoned, hospitalized, and missing.

The Writings series (5 items) includes two essays that Ira B. Sampson composed after the war: "My First Escape from a Southern Military Prison" (31 pages) and "My Second Escape from a Southern Military Prison" (24 pages). Sampson recalled his imprisonment after surrendering Fort Williams in April 1864. He described conditions in prison camps in Savannah, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina, and recounted his first escape, recapture, and subsequent (ultimately successful) escape. The series also contains a 10-page toast celebrating escapees and reminiscences and notes about the Battle of Plymouth (all undated).