This collection contains two letters from M. A. Bentley, a Confederate soldier, possibly serving with a Virginia unit, during the American Civil War. The letters, both addressed to Bentley's father, John E. Bentley, were written from hospitals in Liberty (now Bedford) and Richmond, Virginia, on April 2 and September 2, respectively. Bentley's letters focus largely on personal matters, as he describes his health, his desire for more letters from home, and his religious faith. In the April 2 letter, Bentley writes at length with a prediction for dark days for the Confederacy: "[T]he cloud that is hovering over us looks veary dark and gloomey, it is the darkest cloud that ever over shadowed the eyes of this confederacy..." Bentley foresees a number of bloody battles, concluding, "[T]he hardest fightting that ever has bin done will be done this somer. The hills of the [saucy?] south will be full of wripling streams of blood." In the September 2 letter, he writes at length of religion and of religious services in camp.