Scope and Content Note
The papers of William Duncan Wilkins (1826-1882) span the years 1847-1863, with the bulk of the items dating from 1861 to 1863, and consist of correspondence, a diary, and newspaper clippings. The collection contains correspondence written to Wilkins by his mother, Maria Wilkins, while he was serving as a lieutenant in the United States Army during the Mexican War and letters written from locations in Maryland and Virginia by Wilkins to his wife, Elizabeth Wilkins, during the Civil War . His diary accompanied by a newspaper article chronicles Wilkins’s captivity as a prisoner of war at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, from August to September 1862.