The John F. Crosby Papers contains the research of Dr. John Crosby for a publication entitled "Brother Versus Brother: Divided Families in the Civil War." The manuscript focuses on families who fought on opposite sides during the Civil War. The research team concentrated on genealogy reconstruction, researching of the soldiers' families of origin and studying the long term effect the Civil War had on the divided families.

The collection contains a detailed handwritten genealogy chart of the families discussed in the manuscript as well as a master research findings sheet and correspondence between Dr. Crosby's research team and many different historical societies from Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and Kentucky.