Along the way Major Milsaps kept a meticulous seventy-three volume diary which chronicles not only his army activities, but also a host of general observations useful to researchers. In addition, the Milsaps Papers contain extensive scrapbooks of personal and salvationist material, personal correspondence and an extensive photographic collections. Similarly, the papers contain a significant body of Salvation Army literature and ephemera unique in this country. When the only complete "run" of the WAR CRY in existence and Milsaps' personal library in Special Collections were added to the Milsaps collection holdings, it became one of the most significant bodies of Salvation Army materials in the United States.

Finally, the collection includes certain materials that may prove useful to researchers concerned neither with Milsaps personally or the Salvation Army in general. The Milsaps Papers contain, for example, the Major's collection of autographs, many of which bear on nineteenth century American politics, especially in the state of Ohio. Also in the collection is a group of scrapbooks dealing with such diverse topics as the Galveston Storm of 1900 and the San Francisco Earthquake. Of unusual interest too is the body of materials Major Milsaps collected in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War which may aid some scholars interested in that conflict or the subsequent insurrection. There is also an extensive collection of materials relating to the history of Slavery.