Josiah Adams Patterson Campbell was born at Camden in the Lancaster District of South Carolina on March 2, 1830. He was the son of Presbyterian minister Robert Bond Campbell and Mary Adams Patterson Campbell. He moved with his parents to Madison County, Mississippi, around 1845. Campbell studied law and was admitted to the bar at Kosciusko, Attala County, Mississippi, on June 12, 1847. He married Eugenia Elizabeth Nash, daughter of the Reverend W. W. Nash of Kosciusko on May 23, 1850. Campbell was elected to the Mississippi legislature from Attala County in 1851. He was elected as speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1859. Campbell was a delegate to the convention that adopted the Ordinance of Secession. He enlisted in the Confederate army and served as captain, lieutenant colonel, and colonel. Campbell returned to Kosciusko after the war and was elected as a circuit judge. He was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court by Governor John M. Stone in 1876 and was later re-appointed by Governor Robert Lowry. Campbell served on the court for eighteen years and was chief justice during part of this time. Robert Bond Campbell, Jr., was a veteran of the Mexican War and a major in the Confederate army. He was wounded during the siege of Vicksburg and died on June 28, 1863.

This collection contains a June 11, 1848, letter from Jefferson Davis to Robert Bond Campbell; a May 19, 1863, letter from Robert Bond Campbell to his wife describing the May 17, 1863, battle of the Big Black River; and October 3, 1868, and January 28, 1874, letters from Josiah Adams Patterson Campbell to William Van Davis, chancery clerk of Attala County, Mississippi. The collection also contains an 1849 affidavit of Robert Bond Campbell; a December 3, 1849, letter from the United State Pension Office to Robert Bond Campbell; and a copy of the estate settlement of James C. Davis of Holmes County, Mississippi, 1839-1843.

1. Papers. 1839-1874. 0.10 cubic ft.