Letters and papers of Dr. James S. Oliver, Hernando, Desoto County, physician and surgeon, who served as surgeon of the 9th Regiment Mississippi Volunteers, in the Confederate States army.

Dr. Oliver was born in Elberton, Georgia, and with his wife, Sarah White Oliver, came to Desoto County in 1838. He built a one-room log house on land he secured for fifty cents an acre. In 1840, Dr. Oliver built the two-story log house which still stands in Desoto County. He died in 1882.

The collection consists of land and tax records, family letters, a commission in the Georgia militia, matriculation cards from Memphis Medical College, special requisitions for army surgical supplies, lists of sick soldiers, and lists of Civil War surgical instruments. Dr. Oliver was at Tupelo and Corinth in 1862.