Letters and account book of James S. W. Bailey who served with the 17th Mississippi Infantry regiment, Co. B and post-war correspondence from other Bailey family members. Bailey's parents moved to Wisconsin in the 1850s and it is there that he writes to them describing his daily activities, financial matters, business transactions, his elopement, and his views as a Southerner at the beginning of the Civil War. The account book (1859-1862) consists of an accounting of purchases, recipes, and brief journal entries throughout depicting James' experience as a private in the Mississippi infantry documenting weather, troop movement, and camp life. Also included are letters from James' wife Josephine to her in-laws, the bulk of which come after James' death as well as letters from Moses and Chad Bailey. Of particular interest is the letter in which Josephine informs her mother-in-law of James' death, and her mother-in-law's anguished response.
