This collection comprises papers from the 1860s, consisting of twenty letters, an album of thirteen photographs, three newspapers, and sixteen military documents including ordnance and quartermaster forms, duty documents, and equipment lists, all collected by Charles E. Foote, an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The letters were written by Foote between January 1864 and November 1865 to his young fiancée, Kate La Rue, who was living in their hometown of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Foote writes about his military duties, living conditions, national news as well as news from friends and family, and discusses his love for La Rue and their future together. He includes his views of the war and abolition, the South, and U.S. politics. In his letter dated April 22nd, 1865, Foote writes in detail about the reactions in Chattanooga of soldiers and citizens alike to the news of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The final five letters were written in the aftermath of the war’s end. The sixteen album photographs are mostly unidentified except for Colonel Charles M. Lum of the 10th Michigan Infantry, who had briefly served with Foote in the 1st Michgan Infantry, and Foote’s daughter Adah at six months old, but most are likely from the 1860s and early 1870s.