Miscellaneous documents

The collection contains papers documenting the military service of Samuel D. Risley and his brother John Risley in the 20th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. There are approximately 181 Civil War letters, primarily from Samuel D. Risley and, intermittently, his brother John, as well as other miscellaneous letters and manuscripts.

In addition there are three diaries Samuel kept during the war offering more details of his service, plus a number of very interesting pieces of ephemera, including newspaper clippings, an important manuscript view drawn by Samuel delineating the 20th’s encampment in New Orleans, a very rare copy of the Freeman’s Champion printed in Houston, Texas, June 26, 1865, a soldier’s manuscript poem written in camp near Falmouth, Virginia, in 1863, and various other pieces of Risley family genealogy including genealogies and reunion booklets from 1890 and 1904.