This collection contains a biographical sketch of Alfred Cox Smith and a letter from Smith to his mother, written April 10, 1862. Alfred Smith was born in Washington County in 1841 and was the son of Abram Fulkerson Smith, a lawyer from Kentucky and a member of the Mississippi Legislature in 1846 and from 1857–1858. The letter to Mrs. Abram Smith from her son, Alfred, was written shortly after the Battle of Shiloh. It was written on patriotic stationery stolen from an evacuated United States Army camp. In the letter Smith gives a detailed description of his activities during the battle.