Unpublished Manuscripts and Documentation, 1994-1995

Among those papers included in the collection is an edited transcript of the diary of Jasper Hawse (1835-1905), a Civil War soldier born in Hardy County, Virginia. At the beginning of the Civil War Hawse enlisted in the 14th Regiment, Virginia Militia, which became the 7th Virginia Cavalry Regiment in March 1862. In June 1862 the cavalry regiment was reorganized as the 17th Virginia Cavalry Battalion. Hawse also served intermittently as a commissary sergeant in the Confederate Quartermaster's Department. The collection also includes a paper about Emanuel Stance, the first African-American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor for action in the post-Civil War period.