The Bear Family Papers consist of diaries, books, and letters of various members of the Bear family. There is the 1862 diary of Harvey Bear, who although not a soldier in the American Civil War at that time, describes the war activity around him and his service as a wagon teamster for the Confederate Army. Harvey refers to his neighbor, Jedediah Hotchkiss, who served as Thomas J."Stonewall" Jackson's topographer. The papers also include two diaries written in 1878-1879 by Harvey's son George, a manuscript general order written in March 1863 for Stonewall Jackson's Second Army Corp of the Army of Northern Virginia, and a letter written in February 1849 from a member of the Virginia House of Delegates to Harvey Bear about a vote on resolutions regarding enslaved people.