The papers of Benjamin Franklin Fuller, a Union artilleryman who served in Company A, 1st New York Light Artillery Regiment, span the years 1856-1971, with the bulk of the material dated between 1861 and 1899. The papers consist of correspondence, photographs and miscellaneous material. The correspondence consists of fifteen letters written by Fuller to his wife Emma while he served in the Union army during the Civil War. The letters cover a breadth of topics ranging from military activity to the couple’s two children, Robert and John. The letters written between 1861 and 1862 describe the Army of the Potomac’s preparation for the Peninsular Campaign of 1862 under General George Brinton McClellan, as well as major battles including the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, the Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia, and the Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia (also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks). In two letters from 1862, Fuller describes the ascension of Lowe’s reconnaissance balloon at Warwick, Virginia, and the threat posed by the Confederate warship CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) near Newport News, Virginia. In 1863, Fuller wrote a letter to President Lincoln from Bellevue Hospital in New York requesting pay he had not received and a leave of absence to visit his family. Fuller’s original letters within the collection are accompanied by transcripts from the book, A Slice of American History, 1623-1956: Personalized by Stories and Letters of Benjamin F. (Frank) Fuller and His Family with Attention to the Recurring Search for a Moral Compass, written by Carol M. Fuller in 1999.

In addition to Fuller’s Civil War letters, the collection also includes family correspondence consisting of letters written by Emma Fuller, her sister Lavina, and her daughter-in-law Phebe Fuller. Two letters, one written by Emma to her son Robert in 1882 and the other from Robert’s wife, Phebe, to her son in 1941, refer to a family Bible they passed down to their sons. The last remaining page of the Bible describes the Fuller genealogy and is included with the letters. Additionally, the collection contains a Fuller family tree and several photographs of Benjamin Fuller and various family members.