Letters, notes, interviews, and pension applications pertaining to Sumter, his soldiers, and other contemporaries. Much of this material was gathered by Draper during his trip through Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington in July and August, 1871. In addition to taking copious notes in the Pension Office, he examined county records in Albemarle County, Virginia, where Sumter was born, probate records in York and Edgefield counties in South Carolina, papers of Andrew Pickens in possession of Mrs. F.W. Pickens of Edgefield, papers of the late William Gilmore Simms, and Sumter family papers. Three of Sumter's grandchildren Sebastian and Thomas D. Sumter and Mrs. Louisa Murrell were among the numerous persons interviewed. There are notes on several Catawba Indians involved in the Revolution, including Peter Harris, Newriver and his wife Sally, Jacob Scott, and George, Henry, and Joseph White. Other notes concern the adventures of Emily Geiger and Rebecca Starke with Tories. Within this volume is mention, often brief, of almost every battle and skirmish in which Sumter and his associates participated from Braddock's defeat through the Revolution.

Biographical and genealogical references abound in the papers; among the many names discussed in varying detail are: James Boyd Sr.; William Bratton, his wife, and children; William Butler; John Carroll; Hicks Chappell; William (“Bloody Bill”) Cunningham; Frederick K. Hambright; Richard Hampton (d. 1801) of Edgefield; Richard Hampton (brother of Wade Hampton); Robert Hanna; William Hanna; Adam and James Hawthorn; William Hill; John Leeper; Patrick McGriff; William Maclean; James Martin; John Miller; Thomas Neel (Neil, Neal) and his sons, Thomas Jr. and Andrew; James Pagan; Nathan Reid; Samuel Ryan; William Smith; James and Thomas Taylor; Tom (“Soldier Tom”), Sumter's black servant; Robert Trimble; George and Joseph Wade; Robert Walker; John Wallace; Samuel Watson; and William Wylie.