Letters and essays of H. Clay Sharkey, who was born in Leake County on October 7, 1844. Sharkey later lived in Hinds County; served as a private in Company I, Eighteenth Mississippi Infantry, CSA, and in Company C, Third Mississippi Infantry, CSA, and Company D, Fifth Alabama Cavalry, CSA; served as a member of the House of Representatives from Hinds and Yazoo counties, 1896–1900, and from Hinds County, 1900–1904; and eventually moved to Glen Allan, Washington County. Sharkey wrote approximately one hundred and fifty essays and papers on various phases of his life. Approximately one hundred twenty-four of these are in this collection. Twenty-five items pertain to the Confederate Women's Monument Committee of Mississippi, of which Sharkey was chairman, and which erected on the New Capitol grounds a monument to the women of the Confederacy.