Preston Davie of Louisville, Ky., and New York, N.Y., was a lawyer and collector of historical manuscripts and books chiefly relating to the history of the American South during the colonial, Revolutionary, and early national periods. The collection contains scattered and largely unrelated papers, many containing significant information on political and military affairs, others chiefly of interest as autographs, primarily relating to the South. The papers primarily address military activities during the American Revolutionary War and post-Revolutionary War politics. Other papers relate to French attempts at colonization in the 16th century, a letter of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny to Catherine de Medeci, documents of Charles IX, and an origninal grant from 1682 of 6,000 acres in South Carolina to John Smith, a sugar refiner in Surrey, England, 18th-century colonial history of the Carolinas, land and property, legal issues, and matters regarding relations with Native Americans. There are also a few papers related to slavery in the South. The Kershaw-Chesnut papers, 1751-1832, are a separate series of documents pertaining to lands in North Carolina and South Carolina acquired by the Kershaw family and Chesnut family of South Carolina. Papers in the collection include letters, land grants, deeds and surveys, indentures, military orders, commissions, administrative documents, petitions, bills of sale, arrest warrants, and one volume. A significant portion of the collection relates to the American Revolutionary War in the South, 1775-1883, particularly the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia. These include letters and other documents of military and civic leaders regarding administrative details, troop movements, supplies, and prisoners. A series of letters, 1774-1779, from John Pringle of South Carolina discusses American Revolutionary diplomacy from Europe and British attitudes toward the war. Another series of letters relates to the siege and capture of Charleston, S.C., 1780. Three of these letters from Sir Henry Clinton to General Benjamin Lincoln regarding the terms of surrender are believed to have been written by Major John Andre, acting as aide to Clinton. Other important letters include one from General Horatio Gates to General Nathanael Greene, 4 December 1780, written two days after he had been replaced by Greene, asking Greene for a court-martial to pass upon Gate's conduct at the Battle of Camden; and a letter from William Smallwood, 6 December 1780, to General Greene, relating to Colonel William Washington's victory in the battle with Colonel Ridgely and 112 Tory officers and men. Persons represented in the collection include John Ashe, Theodore Broughton, William Bull, Thomas Burke, Richard Caswell, Gaspard de Coligny, Christopher Gadsden, Horatio Gates, Alexander Gillon, James Glen, Nathanael Greene, Wade Hampton, Cornelius Harnett, Patrick Henry, William Howe, Allen Jones, Henry Laurens, John Laurens, John Alexander Lillington, Francis Marion, Alexander Martin, Abner Nash, Thomas Pinckney, Griffith Rutherford, John Rutledge, Jethro Sumner, Nicholas Trott, and William Tryon. Quaker Gun
