Miscellaneous papers of William L. Sharkey of Vicksburg. Sharkey was born in Tennessee in 1797. The family moved to Warren County, Mississippi in 1803. Sharkey fought in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. He studied law and formed a partnership with John I. Guion in Vicksburg. He became a member of the Mississippi legislature, a circuit judge, Chief Justice of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, U.S. consul to Havana, provisional governor of Mississippi in 1865, and was elected to the U.S. Senate, in 1865. He and the other Southern Senators-elect were not seated. Sharkey died in 1873.

The collection includes a letter written by Sharkey in Havana; a letter signed by William H. Seward informing Sharkey of his appointment as provisional governor of Mississippi; proclamation of the appointment signed by Andrew Johnson; and the oath of amnesty signed by Sharkey.