This eclectic collection, perhaps the best Arkansas Civil War-related collection ever assembled by a private individual, contains original items dating from 1861 through 1952. The correspondence, documents, and photographs shed light on the experiences of individual soldiers and military units from both sides in the Civil War, as well as on the lives of families, communities and businesses caught up in the war. In addition, the collection carries the story forward with material related to Civil War pensions and the post-war lives of veterans and their families.
The collection consists mostly of individual items, such as the 1862 portion of the journal kept by an officer of the 59th Illinois, including a description of the Battle of Pea Ridge. It also includes two other diaries--a 15-page narrative by Major Herrmann Schlueter of the 9th Wisconsin Infantry, covering the dates from January 22, 1862 to August 13, 1863 and a pocket diary kept by 1st Lieutenant Israel P. Nolen of Company D, 13th Arkansas Infantry, which contains information from the years 1861 to 1864.
Another individual item of great interest is large map of the battlefield at Pea Ridge. The map, believed to be the work of a Union soldier, is hand drawn in brown ink on orange necessity paper.
In addition, the collection contains groups of items related to particular persons or organizations. One such example is Dr. Turhand Dice of Utica, Missouri, who served as a surgeon with the 57th United States Colored Infantry. Documents include post-war correspondence to and from Dr. Dice regarding needed information for pension applications, a carte de visite of him in uniform, and family correspondence and documents.
Also of interest is a series of letters written by Colonel Benjamin W. Johnson of the 15th Arkansas Infantry while in the Johnson Island Prison at Sandusky, Ohio. Johnson writes to men from the local community to thank them for befriending him and for assisting him with his needs, promising to repay them as soon as possible. The final letter is written from his home near Camden, Arkansas, describing the conditions there, but also repeating his commitment to repay the funds loaned to him while he was in prison.
The post-war story is told most strongly in this collection through records from the United Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and especially the Department of Arkansas of the Grand Army of the Republic. One record book, for instance, contains the minutes covering the organization and first several years of Little Rock's McPherson Post No. 1 of the GAR. A total of 14 such books, as well as documents and correspondence related to this and other Arkansas GAR posts are in the collection.
The total collection contains more than 100 individual documents, two UDC scrapbooks, 15 ledger or journal books with organizational records, approximately 70 individual photographs, and four photograph albums with more than 100 additional photographs. At least one of the photograph albums at one time belonged to Augustine Lejeune, sister of Marine Corps Commandant John A. Lejeune.
A digitial sampling of this rich collection as well as the collection finding aid can be found on the Butler Center's Civil War website – www.butlercenter.org/civilwararkansas The collection itself can be accessed by visiting the research room in the Arkansas Studies Institute.