The collection includes family, official, and political correspondence, including letters from Irish relatives and other papers, 1799-1815, pertaining to duties as federal tax assessor and collector in western Virginia of Hugh McGavock (1761-1844) of Wythe County, Va.; miscellaneous antebellum papers of Judge Henry Dickinson of Columbia, Miss., father of United States Secretary of War Jacob McGavock Dickinson; and antebellum correspondence about routine political appointments of Randal William McGavock (1826-1863), Confederate Army officer, Democratic Party leader, diplomat, and mayor of Nashville, Tenn. Also included are a lengthy 1853 letter discussing a rebellion in China and an 1859 letter from William L. Sharkey of Jackson, Miss., about the possibility of secession.
