Draper correspondence, 1861-1889, interspersed with numerous newspaper and periodical articles; the majority of the papers are centered about the battle of the Thames and the circumstances of Tecumseh's death there, including the controversial identity of the soldier who slew him. Smaller groups of papers pertain to three other topics: description and location of relics, such as the medals, belt, powderhorn, and hatchet stripped from the fallen Indian leader; the question of his possible membership in freemasonry; and the sieges of Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson in the summer of 1813. Draper's correspondents were primarily descendants of combatants, both Indian and American, in the battle of the Thames, but also filed in the volume are a few earlier letters bearing on this battle addressed to Benjamin Drake (1823) and to Charles S. Todd (1835-1840).
Persons other than Tecumseh mentioned in the materials include Samuel Baker, the Sauk Black Hawk, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Holmes (b. 1797), George Ironside, Sr. (1761-1831), Richard M. Johnson, Peter Navarre, the Ottawa called Noonday, the Chippewa chief Ooshawunoo (Shawahwaunoo), the Potawatomi Shaubena, and William Whitley. There is a large measured drawing of a hatchet alleged to have belonged to Tecumseh.
