Papers, 1778-1788, 1832-1884. Original correspondence for 1778-1779 fills nearly one half of the volume. Most of these letters were addressed to Edward Hand and William Fleming, but several were sent to Patrick Henry. Almost all relate to the service of the Virginia militia in the Virginia-Pennsylvania region. Major topics are similar to those for 1777 in 1 U, but some correspondents comment on or convey news from the East, South, Detroit, and the Mississippi Valley. A few of the 1779 letters pertain to Evan Shelby's Chickamauga campaign and are accompanied by rough notes about Shelby by Draper. Writers in 1778-1779, in addition to Fleming, Hand, and Henry, included James Callaway, Arthur Campbell, William Christian, William Crawford, David Espy, John Evans, John Green, John Irwin, Andrew Lewis, Archibald Lochry, Patrick Lockhart, Lachlan McIntosh, William McKee, Sampson Matthews, George Morgan, Providence Mounts, William Preston, Andrew Robinson, David Rogers, William Russell, David Shepherd, George Skillern, James Smith, John Taylor, John Tipton, Stephen Trigg, and George Vallandigham.

The financing of the war in the West and Indian forays and threats in Kentucky are the topics of correspondence, 1782-1786, written by Anne (Mrs. William) Christian, Governor Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, Samuel McDowell, Thomas Marshall, and John Wyllys. The values of forts, of military offensives, and of immigration as means of frontier protection Marshall expounded in a letter of December 22, 1782. McDowell's reactions to the United States Constitution are contained in a letter to Fleming dated December 20, 1787, and briefer mention of the Constitution occurred in a letter by William Russell to Fleming three months later. In another 1788 letter, Josiah Harmar informed John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Council, that paper money was not acceptable for the recruiting service. A narrative describing settlement of the Miami country from 1787 to 1796 has been attributed to the authorship of John. S. Gano; particularly discussed in the account are John Filson, Reverend John Gano, Israel Ludlow, the elder John C. Symmes, Anthony Wayne, and James Wilkinson.

Also found in the volume are a few notes by Draper on the massacre of the neutral Delaware at Gnadenhutten by militia commanded by David Williamson in April, 1782. These are followed by a larger body of notes, letters to Draper, and clippings about William Crawford's ill-fated Sandusky expedition a few weeks later in 1782 and Crawford's fatal torture by his Indian captors. Several genealogical letters pertain to William and Valentine Crawford and their relatives in the Harrison, Minter, and Stevenson families.