The bulk of this collection consists of letters that family and friends in Tazewell, Tennessee wrote to Mattie (Weir) McAmis in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil War. Many of these letters were authored by Mattie's eldest daughters, Mary and Maggie. These letters, while mostly personal in content, also discuss Corinth, Mississippi and describe East Tennessee during the Federal occupation of early 1862. The collection also houses correspondence written to and from Mattie (McAmis) Mitchell (Mattie (Weir) McAmis's youngest daughter) and correspondence between Eppie (Mitchell) Frazier (Mattie (McAmis) Mitchell's daughter) and her son, Joseph A. Frazier, during World War II.