This collection contains the journal of Philip G. Peltz, chief engineer of the U. S. S. Dacota during the American Civil War. It also includes a typed, bound transcription of the journal. Peltz wrote about his experiences aboard the ship in 1862 and 1863, including the destruction of the U. S. S. Merrimack, his experience with yellow fever, and encounters with people escaping enslavement who sought out the Union Army.

Of the Merrimack's destruction, Peltz wrote, "soon the flames spread over her entire length enshrouding her in one sheet of fire. The fire and smoke came pouring out of the smoke pipe greater than from a cupola... At 4.32 A.M. the entire mass of flame, a great portion of her iron sheathing, +c were seen to ascend high into the heavens, presenting one of the most magnificent pyrotechnical views I ever beheld."

Peltz wrote, "We have taken on board several [people escaping enslavement] who came down to the beach and begged to be taken on board, sometimes they would be possessed with passes from their [enslavers]... When their fellows were closely interrogated as to what their motives were in running off they only seemed to think that their condition could not be any [worse] so they would try in anyhow, some left their wives and families behind in their eagerness to leave their states of bondage."