Diaries and personal papers of members of the Gildart, Eggleston, and Roach families, planters of Wilkinson County and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Typescript of Horace Nelson Gildart (1825) gives an account of a journey through England and Ireland depicting the countryside, sites, and people. Entries include personal observations concerning economical and cultural differences between the people and institutions of England and America. Transcripts of other antebellum diaries give accounts of plantation activities and social events of the Eggleston family. Collection also includes Civil War correspondence and military orders (originals and transcripts) concerning Mrs. Elizabeth Eggleston's efforts to smuggle food, medicine, and money through Union lines to Confederate soldiers after the fall of Vicksburg - activities for which she was subsequently imprisoned and later banished from Vicksburg. Later papers consist of personal letters to Mrs. M. P. H. Roach;letters and bills of her son, Thomas R. Roach; newspaper clippings; and photographs. Printed material contains a pamphlet of a speech by Rev. Ezra Ripley (1792) and a facsimile of the Vicksburg DAILY CITIZEN (July 2, 1863).
