The collection consists of a letter written by Dr. Leonard A. Slater to his father, John Slater, on October 10, 1862, during the American Civil War. At the time of the letter, Leonard A. Slater was serving as a surgeon in the 15th Virginia Calvary at General Hospital No. 23 in Richmond, Virginia. The letter details items that L.A. Slater sent had sent home to his family in New Kent County. These items include whiskey "well sealed with wax" as well as medicine for his mother's headaches. In the letter Slater also advises his father to take the people he enslaves and leave his home and furnishings for the Yankees rather than lose those enslaved people to Union troops. He advises that losing the family home, Slatersville, would be preferable to being "subject to the brutal insults of the same (Union soldiers)."