The collection includes letters from Joseph Caldwell, James Hogg, William Hooper, and James Webb to James Alves and Walter Alves, Hillsborough, N.C., on a variety of subjects, including land division in Tennessee and Kentucky in 1798, the War of 1812, and the University of North Carolina, 1813-1825. Letters from others concern Hogg family genealogy and the Civil War. Items dated before 1861 are handwritten transcriptions. Civil War letters include a letter of Thomas Lenoir Norwood, son of J. C. (Joseph Caldwell) Norwood and Laura Leah (Lenoir) Norwood, describing student life at the University of North Carolina in 1861 and not mentioning the war; two letters from Laura Norwood in North Carolina to her mother about raising troops and about sentiment for the war; a letter of Walter Norwood written in 1862 from Camp Lee near Savannah, Ga., describing camp life and speculating on Union tactics as federal troops moved toward Savannah; and a letter of Thomas Lenoir Norwood, written in 1863, from Richmond, Va., describing being wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, being taken prisoner, escaping and traveling through Union lines, and meeting with General Robert E. Lee.
