Finding Aids (Inventories)

Contact the Archivist about finding aids (inventories) of the Archives collections listed below or specific collections.

Archives staff are in the long-term process of creating a comprehensive searchable database of the collections. Although this database is not yet available on the website, the staff can use it to assist researchers upon request.

Transcripts for collections indicated with a + are available on the Members Only segment of this website. Click here for more information on how you become a member of the Museum and gain access to these transcripts.

African American History Collection
Documents relating to slaves, free people of color, and the employment of African Americans in the Confederate army.

Civilian and Homefront Collection

Confederate Memorial Literary Society "Roll of Honour"
A 346-volume biographical register containing names and basic information on approximately 1 in 15 Confederate soldiers. Part of this register has been transcribed and can be viewed here.

Confederate States Army Bound Volumes overview, specific volume inventories available:

• Armistead-Barton-Steuart Brigade letter book, 1863-1865
• Army of Northern Virginia Order Book, 1862
• Army of the Peninsula Order Book 1861-2     
• Army of the West (Van Dorn) letter book 1862
• Maj. John B. Cary letter book, 1861
• William Nelson Pendleton letter book,1862-1865
• William Nelson Pendleton order book, 1862-1865
• Felix Zollicoffer letter book, 1861-1862
• John Thompson Brown Collection
• John W. Mallet Collection

Family History Series
Featuring the papers of soldiers and civilians that span the antebellum to postwar time periods.

• Bateman Family Collection
• Baughman Family Collection
• Beauchamp-West Family Collection
• Breedin-Coleman Family Collection
• Bryan Family Collection
• Clack-Livingston Family Collection
• Coggill-Mitchell Family Collection
• Cutchin-Hodsden Family Collection
• Dabney Family Collection
• Deas-Archer Family Collection
• Ellyson-Hotchkiss Family Collection
• Finley Family Collection
• Hunt-Morgan-Hill Family Collection
• Hunter Family Collection
• Leake Family Collection
• Macgill Family Collection
• Mason Family Collection
• Moody Family Collection
• Morris Family Collection
• Nelson-Overbey Family Collection
• Nicholls-Clopton Family Collection
• Pilcher-Wilkerson Family Collection
• Richwood-Cameron Family Collection
• Seward Family Collection
• Smith-Johnson Family Collection
• Storey Family Collection
• Sullivan Family Collection
• Surghnor-Joiner Family Collection
• Thom Family Collection
• Thomas Family Collection
• Tompkins Family Collection
• Williams Family Collection
• Williams Family Collection

George W. and Douglas B. Ball Numismatic Collection
Confederate currency, bonds and other financial instruments such as stock certificates, depositary certificates, and treasury checks.

Government and Bureaucracy Collection
In particular, record books of the Treasury Department and Patent Office.

Hollywood Memorial Association Collection
The central archives of the association, 1866-1934.

Imprint Collection
One of the world’s largest collections of items printed in the South from 1861-1864.

Jefferson Davis Family Collection
Featuring letters of Jefferson, Varina, and Varina Anne "Winnie" Davis.

Medical and Hospital Series
Featuring the papers of medical personnel, hospitals, and morning reports.

• Hospital Collection
• Abel Seymour Baldwin and General
• Hospital, Lake City, Florida Collection
• Sally Louisa Tompkins and Robertson
• Hospital Collection
• + Record of Wounds Treated at Winder Hospital
• Medical Personnel Collection
• William Allen Carrington Collection
• Hunter Holmes McGuire Collection
• Samuel Hollingsworth Stout Collection
• Isaac S. Tanner Collection
• The Confederate Association of Army and Navy Surgeons Collection
• Department of Virginia Collection
• Miscellaneous

Map Collection
Robert E. Lee's Mexico Map
More than 400 items, including 115 manuscript maps; features maps created by the Confederate Topographical Engineers Bureau.

Military Leaders Series
Including significant collections relating to Archer and Joseph Reid Anderson, P. G. T. Beauregard, Henry Heth, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Sam Jones, Robert E. Lee, Dabney H. Maury, John S. Mosby, W. H. F. Payne, and J. E. B. Stuart; an alphabetically arranged collection of official and unofficial documents by more than 100 other Confederate general officers.
 
Robert E. Lee’s Appointment as Confederate General
Confederate States Army Collection Series Collections of returns and correspondence from the Department of South Carolina and Georgia and General Carter L. Stevenson’s division, Army of Tennessee; several hundred muster rolls of Confederate companies; incidental papers relating to individual regiments, primarily in the Army of Northern Virginia; large collections of routine documents from several quartermaster and commissary officers; and letters and diaries written by Confederate soldiers.

Alphabetical index of holdings related Confederate Military Leaders

• Archer Anderson Collection
• Joseph R. Anderson Collection
• P.G.T. Beauregard Collection
• Robert H. Chilton Collection
• Henry Heth Collection
• Thomas J. Jackson Collection
• Sam Jones Collection
• Robert E. Lee Family Collection
• Dabney Maury Collection
• + John S. Mosby Collection
• W.H.F. Payne Collection
• JEB Stuart Collection

Monuments and Memorials Collection
Large collections of original records relating to the Jefferson Davis Monument and Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Richmond, along with documents and dedication addresses relating to dozens of southern monuments.

Muster Roll Collection
Large collection of original wartime muster rolls, most of which were donated to the Museum by the Southern Historical Society and by Confederate veterans. In addition to these muster rolls, the Archives has a large collection of Confederate unit rolls and rosters consisting primarily of postwar unofficial records.

Navy Collection
Features historically significant log books, journals, and papers of officers in the Confederate States Navy, most notably the C.S.S. Shenandoah.  The collection consists of six oversize boxes containing bound volumes and three boxes of several miscellaneous individual collections (Hardin Littlepage, John Thomson Mason, Matthew Fontaine Maury, and Michael Usina); Individuals (primarily officers), and Vessels.

Newspapers Collection
Several thousand wartime and postwar newspapers, including extensive wartime runs of bound newspapers from New York, Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, and scattered issues of more than 100 rare newspapers from the South, North, and Europe during the Civil War era.

Prints and Sketches
The Museum’s collection of works of art on paper, comprising more than 1,000 lithographs, etchings, engravings, sketches, drawings, watercolors, and other media, featuring portraits of famous and obscure Confederates, battle and naval scenes, historically significant buildings, monuments, and works by Confederate soldier artists William Ludwell Sheppard and Allen Christian Redwood.

Prisoners of War Collection
A large collection of letters from Confederate prisoners held in Federal prison camps and 37 prisoner autograph books, primarily from Johnson’s Island, Ohio. + (see inventory for transcripts)

Sheet Music Collection
More than 700 pieces of loose sheet music and bound volumes.

Soldier Diary Collection
+ (see inventory for transcripts)

• Soldier Letters Collections overview
• Barksdale Letters
• Barnes Letters
• Baughman Letters
• Raleigh Camp Letters
• Clayton Coleman Letters
• E. L. and John B. Coleman Letters
• Denton Letters
• Doby Letters
• Evans Letters
• Randolph and Ethelbert Fairfax Letters
• + Hamilton Brothers Letters
• Hatchett Letters
• Jesse Hill Letters
• Kisling Letters
• + Livingston / Inglis Letters
• + Mayo Letters
• Mitchell Letters
• + Mitteldorfer Letters
• Morris Letters
• Nadenbousch Letters
• Randolph Letters
• + Rock Letters
• Routt Letters
• Royall Brothers Letters
• Short Letters
• Slemons Letters
• Smith Letters
• Stephenson Letters
• Storey Letters
• Williams Letters
• Wilson Letters
• Winsmith Letters
• + Woods Letters

Southern Historical Society Collection
A large collection of minute books and correspondence of the SHS (especially 1876-1894), along with manuscript copies of items published in Southern Historical Society Papers and a small collection of unpublished manuscripts.

Southern Women’s History Collection
A significant collection of original records of wartime women’s associations, wartime letters, and postwar reminiscences.

United Daughters of the Confederacy Collection
A large collection of proceedings, chapter records, and historical records/reminiscences, primarily of the Virginia Division, 1900-1930; and sixty scrapbooks of "historical records" compiled by Mildred Lewis Rutherford, UDC historian general, 1910-1916.

USA Collection
Although the vast majority of material in the Library relates to the Confederacy, it also houses a small collection of official and unofficial papers relating to Union generals, soldiers, and commands.

Veterans Collection
Published programs and proceedings of the UCV and Virginia Division reunions and meetings, as well as manuscript records of the New York Camp and several Virginia camps (some publications of Army of Northern Virginia and Army of Tennessee associations).