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The Hoar collection consists mainly of letters written by Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar to William Maxwell Everts. Both men were distinguished attorneys in the mid-19th century. The letters regard political topics of the time, and especially the United States Supreme Court.

The Ebenezer Hoar papers span twenty-three years of deep friendship between the distinguished attorneys, Ebenezer Hoar and William M. Evarts, a friendship owing to family ties, and similar professional pursuits and political beliefs. All but one of the letters in this collection was written by Hoar to Evarts. Close in age, they attended different schools, but both entered the legal profession and enjoyed similar political views. Each served several months, in succession, as Attorney-General of the United States.

The letters cover a myriad of political concerns, centered on the turbulent years leading up to the Civil War, the War itself, and Reconstruction. Particularly useful are the insights into political machinations, the personalities of various statesmen, and the intrigues of capturing political appointments. The Supreme Court is especially singled out for detailed commentary.

The collection includes one letter to lawyer Peleg W. Chandler, considered the best jury pleader in Massachusetts in his day.

The Hussey-Wadsworth papers document the involvement of two well-to-do families in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and, less intensively, in the two World Wars.

The Hussey-Wadsworth papers fall into two main categories, documenting the involvement of two well-to-do families in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and, less intensively, in the two World Wars. While military involvement forms the core of the collection, there is also interesting material relating to the social and educational lives of upper class New Yorkers, business affairs, and of particular note, the Reconstruction period in Georgia. The collection centers around three main figures: George Tuttle Hussey, his son, George Alexander Hussey, and Andrew S. Wadsworth.

Highly educated and a gifted writer, George Alexander Hussey's letters are uniformly interesting and enjoyable. One of the most remarkable of his letters is a 61 page description of his tour through Bavaria and Switzerland, written in November, 1860. With room to spare, Hussey lavished attention on the sites in Munich, Zürich, and Dachsen, where he marveled at the waterfalls, and he was captivated by everything from the sublime mountains to a cheese maker's simple house, the Freiburg Bridge, and European power politics. Hussey's appreciation of the landscape, architecture and high culture, however, did not extend to the "ignorant" masses whom he observed groveling in prayer to a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Shortly after returning from Europe, Hussey became a Union soldier and began relating his experiences to his father. A common complaint in his correspondence was his desire for a commission. Believing that influence and money purchased rank, Hussey told his father that both were necessary if he wished to become a first lieutenant and then a captain, and when his father did not respond with the alacrity which Hussey felt due, he scolded him. The delay, he insisted, had cost him one hundred dollars (67). Ambitious, young Hussey did finally achieve the rank of captain. He was discharged in November, 1863, reenlisted the following May, and again, almost immediately began his pursuit of a commission, this time, though, through the help of his friends rather than his father (81).

Tensions between George Alexander Hussey and his father extended deeper than the simple matter of assistance in obtaining a commission. The animosity may have stemmed from the length of time it took the younger Hussey to repay a debt he had incurred during his European tour. In December 1860, George IV borrowed forty dollars from K. Grossgebauer, a resident of Gotha, Germany (47, 53). George III apparently accused his son of lying about the debt, and in response, George IV complained that his father treated him like a child (53). By May, 1864, Private Hussey had paid off the debt, but the ill feelings continued to grow (80). As a result, he began directing his letters to his mother and sister.

George Alexander's letters also reflect some of the problems facing Union officers. In June, 1862, he wrote that ten officers of the 83rd Regiment had resigned in two months and that many more would have done the same had their resignations been accepted. Apparently, the officers did not get along well with the regiment's colonel, who was said to be "a perfect idol of gold and silver" (37). In March, 1863, eight more officers tendered their resignations, followed by seven more in June. This tumult in the officers' ranks was matched by ill discipline, and arrests were not uncommon. In July, 1863, for example, eight officers were under arrest, and in July, 1865, after some "unknown" soldiers "played a Yankee trick" on a general at Morris Island, the entire 165th Regiment was disarmed and sent as prisoners to Fort Sumter. Even the officers were placed under arrest, though according to Hussey, they had done nothing wrong (121).

Although the 165th Regiment was said to have a good reputation, in Hussey's opinion, it was a poor organization. While traveling on the Victor, the soldiers threw food valued at $1,000 overboard, some men were known thieves while in the service, and more than one hundred of the regiment's soldiers served time in correctional institutions, with about the same number listed as deserters (85). While at Hart's Island, two soldiers even tried to escape in a general's boat (80).

In addition to a fine description of the activities of the 165th Regiment, the Hussey-Wadsworth Papers includes a number of references to white opinions of African American civilians and soldiers and the general rise in racial tensions during early Reconstruction. In June, 1865, for example, Hussey reported that Black civilians were in control of the South Carolina rice plantations and he was impressed with their industriousness. Nevertheless, Black and white soldiers were involved in a number of altercations in Charleston, including one particularly violent incident in which African Americans were accused of using brickbats on the whites (121). Some white soldiers who refused to mount guard with Black soldiers were imprisoned at Fort Pulaski (121).

When not fighting or quarreling with each other, the Union soldiers spent some of their time battling Confederates. Hussey's letters include accounts of several skirmishes, most notably of the Siege of Suffolk in May, 1863, which left forty Union privates and four officers wounded, including Hussey (61). Among Hussey's other duties was escorting Confederate prisoners to camps and forts. In September, 1864, he accompanied 150 prisoners to Camp Chase, Ohio. Along the way, Confederate sympathizers tried to give the prisoners money, food, and clothing (92), and given the strength of this sentiment, it is not surprising that a month later, when leading 200 Confederate officers to Fort Delaware, Hussey wrote that they were all "secessionists to the backbone" (93).

During the presidential election in 1864, Hussey appears to have been in the minority of his regiment in supporting Lincoln. Four-fifths of the 165th Regiment, he wrote, favored McClellan (94), though all of the soldiers of the 165th mourned the president's death (112).

Andrew S. Wadsworth's letters also provide valuable documentation of military experience, focused on the period of the American intervention in the Philippines. His letters provide several accounts of skirmishes with Filipino insurgents, including a vivid description of the skirmish in which he was wounded and a quartermaster sergeant was killed. The letters are equally important in documenting an average soldier's attitudes toward the enemy in one of America's first imperial wars. Wadsworth had few kind words for the insurgents, whom he frequently referred to by racial epithets, and commented not only on their primitive weapons -- mostly bows, arrows and shields, but also on their tactics. By Wadsworth's reckoning, the insurgents battled American soldiers two or three times a week, and were known to jump out of trees in ambush (173).

In other letters, Wadsworth turned his eye to the battered Spanish gunboats in Manila Bay (158), the American victory at Manila (160), Filipino civilians (158, 159, 160), and Chinese laborers engaged in the novelty trade (160, 161), and whom the Filipinos hated (161). Referring to Manila, Andrew wrote that it was "behind the times," but that it had the finest electric lighting he had ever seen. He asserted, however, that the Filipinos were not concerned with cleanliness: people suffering from either smallpox or leprosy walked the streets of Cavite openly, and Filipino civilians removed the clothes of dead Spanish soldiers and resold them. Andrew himself bought a pair of pants and a shirt.

The Hussey-Wadsworth Papers also provide a brief but interesting description of trenches and bombing during the First World War (210), and there is brief commentary on censorship, the German retreat, and the determination of American soldiers (208, 210). One letter refers to the bombing of London during Word War II (232) and to war rationing in both the United States and Great Britain (231, 232).

According to Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, George Tuttle Hussey sold stamps to collectors and issued bronze pennies. Examples of these stamps and coins, dated 1863, are housed in the Postal History Collection.

The Jacob H. Bechtel papers contain 20 letters written by Jacob H. Bechtel to his brother George that reflect the thoughts and experiences of a moderate in Virginia during the Civil War.

The Jacob H. Bechtel papers contains 20 letters written by Jacob H. Bechtel to his brother, George, and represents a microcosm of the civilian Civil War experience in Virginia. Not only was the man's family divided, but the man himself was as well.

The collection provides a detailed and emotionally-charged account of social and political events from the time of John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 to the outbreak of war in 1861. In the earliest letters in this collection, Bechtel freely recorded his opinions on the rhetorical extremes of both those whom he regarded as radical secessionists or fanatical unionists. While he seemed to sympathize more with the Southern cause, Bechtel did not readily swing to either extreme. Instead, he considered the tragedy unfolding in front of him both unnecessary and avoidable, with both sides being led to ruin by the actions of extremists. After the Union blockade of Southern ports and the possibility of leaving for "home" (the North) was eliminated, Bechtel was left with no choice but to side with the Southern cause. The series of correspondence ends with a brief, sanitized note written during a cease fire, probably early in 1862, informing George that he and his family are well.

Among other important events discussed in the Bechtel letters are the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, the secession conventions of the various southern states, the intimidation tactics used by Virginia secessionists to generate support (and quell dissent), the Crittenden Compromise, and the federal blockade of Richmond and its effects on the people and economy. Bechtel's letters provide a strongly worded, personally-felt record of the swings in public opinion in Richmond as perceived by a somewhat atypical resident.

The Phelps-Lyon family papers consists of the correspondence of two Michigan families written while home and away, including letters from Louisiana, California during the gold rush, and serving with the Union during the Civil War.

The Phelps-Lyon papers feature all that one would expect of a family correspondence -- birth, death, marriage, sickness, religion, housekeeping, making a living, and socializing. About half of these letters to and from various family members chronicle such matters in homey style, generally without a lot of detail. The other half represent those who left home, and had other tales to tell -- of cholera and yellow fever, the Wisconsin prairie, rough characters in the gold fields, bloody Civil War battles. Their experiences of unfamiliar worlds form a vivid contrast to the daily work and rituals of the family circle.

Four letters from Sarah Phelps Cook to her aunt Adaline Phelps Lyon and her grandmother Margaret Bigelow Phelps, written in 1868-1869, are typical "domestic correspondence." They discuss church and visiting, new babies, dress-making, fourth of July and Christmas, weddings and funerals -- the range of family and community concerns which comprised a woman's world in this era, place and socio-economic setting. Men's home-based letters, such as those of Phineas Lyon, Sr. to son Thomas in 1831 and 1833, are less focused on the social, although they include gossip and news of illness and accident. Of central concern are economic issues such as business conditions, prospects for crops, building of houses, and the like.

Thomas Lyon recorded his impressions of exotic Louisiana in three letters dating from the 1830's. The young man was articulate and insightful, if somewhat misinformed in health matters. In October, 1833 he writes that news of the cholera outbreak is exaggerated. "I have witnessed many cases of cholera and have no doubt that people are more frightened by the suddenness of death and the howling and yelling of those taken than by the number of deaths. ... I have seen enough of the cholera and yellow fever to convince me that neither is infectious." Thomas was not impressed with New Orleans, finding it "a miserable looking place of business all mud and tobacco smoke. The streets full of Negroes and mulattoes, Mexican, Spaniards, and Indians, every man with a segar in his mouth and a bunch of them stuck in his hat band and perhaps his pockets full into the bargain."

Another son of Phineas Sr. and Sarah, Elijah Lyon, wrote four letters from Illinois and Wisconsin in 1837-1838. With the enthusiastic optimism of the newcomer he describes the fine land and abundant crops, plentiful wildlife, ready money and high wages, and healthy climate of these up-and-coming areas. Moreover, the native Indian population is obligingly selling out and moving on. He writes from Green Lake, Wisconsin in November , 1837: "... the fatest [venison] I ever saw is brought almost every day by the Indians and sold very cheap which with their furs make somewhat of a chance of speculation a few families of Winebagoes still take up their residence about here though the greater part of the tribe have gone beyond the Wisconsin river having sold all their lands this side."

Amos B. Phelps corresponded with girlfriend Elizabeth Pacey while prospecting for gold in California from 1851 to 1854. Amos, a level-headed and temperate young man, cast a critical eye on the squalid living conditions and degraded specimens of humanity he found in the gold fields. In these 20 letters he makes up for clumsy grammar and spelling with sharp observation. He writes from Placerville in December, 1851: "There is all kinds of beings here and from all parts of the world. As for calling them men, they are not, only in form and I do think that some of them have not as much intellect as a dumb brute. ... There is thousands of men that would go home if they could raise the money, but when they get a few dollars they go to gambling in hopes of making a pile in a short time. But instead they loos all they have. As for me, I am determined not to go in the way of temptation." The young man's resolve was strengthened by his wish to return home and marry Elizabeth, and their on again-off again courtship takes up much of the correspondence.

The scenery within Amos's view likewise did not impress: "immagine yourself standing on the top of a high mountain in a vast willderness. Then extend your eyes in all directions and you will see vast wilderness covered with lofty pines ... and miners with pick and shovel stragling in every direction to find the precious juel. Then take a peep down into the ravines and you will see men of all descriptions at work diging the ravine still deeper. Then take a look at the sides of the mountains and there you will see caves that men are diging and under mineing them. Then take a look into some valey and you will see a city built of staves. Then take a squint inside and you are satisfide that it is not a [sic] very pleasant to behold. Such is the scenery, Elizabeth, that I am obligd to look upon. But I care not if I am able to get a good pile of gold and return in safety to Michigan." He did return in safety, though without the pile of gold, married Miss Pacey, and settled down to life as a Michigan farmer.

Phelps's nephew Edgar had his adventures in the more dangerous setting of the Civil War battlefield, and described them in three letters to his uncle Amos and eight to his aunt Adaline Phelps Lyon. In November of 1862 he writes of his experiences in the Fredericksburg campaign, cheerfully stating that he doesn't expect much hard fighting before they get to Richmond, "where we will give them hail columbia and make our winter quarters in the city." By December, engaged in battle at Fredericksburg, perhaps he was learning that it would not be so easy: "I can judge we have gained nothing yet but have lost a great number killed and wounded. There was one of the fourth here just now he says that they are very strongly fortified and we can never drive them out unless we charge on them in a mass. You need not worry about us I guess that we will come out all right." He next writes home from Mississippi. Two letters of June and July, 1863 describe the siege of Vicksburg and fighting at Jackson. An October 1863 letter from Knoxville, Tennessee discusses rampant pro-Union sentiment among the civilians, and one written in December of that year describes in detail the fighting at Fort Sanders the previous month. Photocopies of Edgar's service records included with the collection reveal that he did not "come out all right," but died from an infected wound on June 6, 1864.

Two letters from Phineas Lyon, Sr. to son Thomas, and two to Phineas from an old New York State neighbor, Wells Rathburn, are interesting examples of Quaker writing style. Rathburn's July 1, 1851 letter bemoans the dispersal and shrinking of the Quaker community. The collection also includes a printed epistle of the yearly London Friends meeting for 1804; an 1822 yearly meeting document was transferred to the Books Division.

Folder one contains extensive genealogical material on the Lyon and Phelps families which is helpful in identifying the cast of characters and their relationships

This letterbook kept by Sidney Brooks contains the correspondence of a New York businessman and financier through the Civil War and in the late 1860s.

The letterbook kept by Sidney Brooks represents a portion of the correspondence of a businessman and financier through the Civil War and in the late 1860s. The letterbook consists entirely of outgoing correspondence written to various associates.

There is a vague topical coherence to the letters retained by Brooks. Most are of a personal nature, and many concern Brooks' business and personal relationship with the great sculptor, Hiram Powers. Even the few letters that strictly concern business matter have a personal cast to them, suggesting that this was a private copybook used for private matters.