The first of two volumes of Draper correspondence primarily about the battle of Minisink (July 22, 1779) and earlier raids led by Brant in the Delaware River area of southeastern New York. More than a third of the letters relate to Brant's attack on the Minisink community on July 20, in which the John (Johannes) Decker home was burned, Decker was wounded, and schoolmaster Jeremiah Van Auken was murdered. A few letters concern a raid in the previous year (1778) on the Peenpack settlement (later named Cuddebackville). The battle of Minisink, a Pyrrhic victory for Brant and his Indians and Tories over the Orange County militia, is the major topic of the remaining papers.

Correspondence, plus a few pension statements and newspaper clippings, contains biographical and genealogical information on families of settlers and on several military men. Among the most prominently discussed in addition to the Decker and Van Auken families are: Daniel, Joseph, and Samuel Harker; John Hathorn; Samuel Meeker; Solomon Middaugh; John Poppino; Benjamin Vail; Anthony Westbrook; and Gabriel Wisner. A manuscript genealogy tracing the ancestry of Moses Phillips, descendant of George Phillips (d. 1664), emigrant from England to Massachusetts in 1630, is among the letters. Many members of the Carpenter, Cuddeback, Van Etten, Van Flett, and Westfall families are also mentioned. Draper's copy of a poem (1836) by Alfred B. Street and a few articles on the Minisink centennial (1879) relate to later commemorations of these events.