This collection houses one letter from a Union soldier named Josh stationed in Memphis, Tennessee to his sister Beulah written on May 10, 1863. He is distressed about his orders to leave Memphis and head towards Vicksburg, Mississippi. He writes that he is quite comfortable in the home of a Secesh woman inside the city of Memphis, but is glad to escape the city because of the increasing spread of the disease smallpox. Josh mentions his unknowing exposure to the disease through one of his friends, but says he has no symptoms as of yet. His regiment was told to leave all tents behind for the wounded and ill, and Josh writes that he dreads sleeping on the ground.