The individual war experiences of 29 men who served with Massachusetts military units during the Civil War are now available to researchers. This collection contains more than 30,000 pages of correspondence, diaries, and journals written by young men as they served in the conflict.

A variety of individual experiences in many of the war's most important battles are recorded. Descriptions of dreary field service, life in military hospitals, the Navy, the United States Christian Commission, and a Provost Marshall's office provide unique eyewitness accounts of an important era in U.S. history. While most of the material was generated by enlisted men, there are also sections from field officers and a major general to provide a leadership perspective.

The collection is organized by individual name, but for the added convenience of researchers, an index by military unit served in is also provided.