Joseph W. Collingwood papers

Letters, chiefly dating from 1861 to 1862, from Joseph W. Collingwood to his wife Rebecca. Most letters were written over two or three days. The detailed and candid letters cover various aspects of the campaigns and battles Peninsular Campaign (March-July, 1862): the siege of Yorktown, battle of Hanover Court House, Seven Days Battles (June 25-July 1), operations around White House Landing (June 26-July 2); 2nd Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Sheperdstown Ford, and the Fredericksburg Campaign. His letters provide detailed accounts of camp life of a Civil War soldier payments, uniforms, rations, foraging and procurement, diseases, firearms, drills and inspections, picket duty; roads, recreations, hospitals, and medical care. Collingwood also at length discussed lady nurses and surgeons; Confederate prisoners; socializing with Confederate soldiers; encounters with Confederates and Unionists of Virginia and Maryland, and recounted news from other regiments, especially 29th and 32nd Massachusetts.

Collingwood, an avid admirer of George B. McClellan, filled his letters with discussion of commanders McClellan, Martindale, Barnes, Porter, Pope, and others, together with quite emotional reaction to the dismissal of McClellan and Porter, as well as news of the officers of Massachusetts regiments, including the scandalous, reputation of Ebenezer W. Peirce of 29th Mass. Of special importance is his take on political news and home front: abolitionism, congressional elections of 1862, charity works and recruitment in Massachusetts.

The collection also includes records (general, brigade, division, regiment and company orders, rolls, and correspondence) of Company B, 3rd Regiment of Light Infantry of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. Most letters and orders are addressed to Sylvanus H. Churchill.

The collection contains letters from Rebecca Collingwood to Ann C. Wheeler, her Boston friend, and a few items documenting Mrs. Collingwood's teaching in the Boston Female Asylum, correspondence of Eleanor Wyman Collingwood with her friends and family, including her letters written from Cordoba, Argentina, and Hampton Institute.

Ephemera consist of photographs of the Civil War era by Matthew Brady and R.W. Addis, including snapshots of various members of the 18th Massachusetts, family pictures, miscellaneous printed orders relating to Company B of 3rd Regiment of Massachusetts Militia, an issue of New England Washingtonian. Organ of Sons of Temperance (Boston, Mass.), copies of the Old Colony Memorial (Plymouth, Mass.), newspaper clippings, Masonic documents of Charles B. Collingwood, and miscellaneous post cards and envelopes of the Civil War era.