R. H. Porter, former president of the Steck Company, Austin, Texas and Texas Confederate history enthusiast, gathered a collection of approximately one thousand Texas Confederate and Civil War items.
The R. H. Porter Civil War Collection consists of ephemera, photographs (mostly reproductions), manuscripts, government documents, rare books (originals and photocopies), and pamphlets. While books formed the largest portion of the collection, the collection also includes ephemera, photographs (mostly reproductions), manuscripts, government documents, photocopies of rare books, and pamphlets.
The collection provides information about the Civil War, mostly from a
Texas Confederate perspective, but also includes information about the
Confederate government, the government of the State of Texas, and a small
amount of information about Union troops and activities. The collection is
divided into five series:
The
The
The
The
The
This collection was purchased by the University of Texas at San Antonio Library in 1975.
Processed by Traci JoLeigh Drummond, Archivist, June 2005.
This collection is housed at UTSA's Main Campus and must be accessed via the John Peace Library Special Collections reading room. To request access, please use the
Permission to publish material from the R. H. Porter Civil War Collection must be obtained from University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.
[Identification of item], R. H. Porter Civil War Collection, 1860-1975, MS 130, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.
There is some correspondence with particular items scattered throughout the collection from Lee Lawrence, a fellow Civil War and Texas history enthusiast and collector. It seems that the two men would share information about Confederate Texana resources and locating relevant materials.
Many of the book titles from the R. H. Porter Civil War Collection have
been made available to the public through the
This series contains four items, one of which is a signed letter by Lee
to James A. Seddon, Secretary of War for the CSA. There is also a Confederate
States of America army circular, 1863 (dictated by Lee, but not signed by him),
a photographic duplication of the
The
This series contains eight items and includes correspondence, cancelled bank checks
(1871-1874), an address written to celebrate the 99th anniversary of Davis'
birth (1907), and a booklet titled
This series includes Confederate government documents, broadsides, periodicals, photographs, muster rolls, rosters, and ephemera. All materials were created by the Confederate government or support the message of the Confederacy in some manner. The government documents include army orders, messages of the president, and correspondence. Several items provide biographies of soldiers and officers, and tell of their service to the Confederacy. Of note in this series are two Confederate States Almanacs for 1864 (different editions) and a list of federal prisoners held at Camp Croce (1863). Ephemera in this series include sheet music, a playing card with the Confederate Flag and insignia design, and receipts.
Arranged into four subseries by format, and chronologically therein.
This series includes materials that were created by the Texas government or are about incidents that took place in Texas during the Civil War. Of note in this series are two copies of
Arranged into four subseries by format, and chronologically therein.
This series contains materials generally related to the Civil War and materials that were included with the collection but are not obviously of or about the Civil War or the Confederacy. Items include articles, periodicals, correspondence, religious pamphlets, and price guides for Confederate currency. These items were kept with the collection to maintain original order.
Arranged into five subseries by format, and chronologically therein.