Thirty letters written by David Earhart while serving in the Stonewall Jackson Brigade, 4th Virginia Infantry, Company L. Correspondents include his wife Mary Elizabeth Caddell Earhart, his parents, his slaves, and his sister Mag. Also included are a letter to Mary Earhart after David Earhart was killed at Chancellorsville, images (probably ambrotypes) of Mary and David Earhart), a later cartede visite of Mary Earhart, and additional family correspondence.

The David Earhart Collection spans the years 1862 to ca. 1880 (bulk 1862-1864). It is organized into the following series: Outgoing Correspondence, Miscellaneous Correspondence, and Pictures.

Outgoing Correspondence is comprised of the letters Earhart wrote to his family while he was a soldier in the Stonewall Jackson Brigade. Letters in this series date from 9 April 1862 to 26 April 1863. The bulk of the letters (24) are letters from David Earhart to his wife Mary Elizabeth, also called Mollie. There are also three letters to the family of slaves living on his farm (Anchy, Wash, Jeff, Green, Nancy, and Susan), two to his parents, and one to his sister Mag. The letters contain descriptions of daily life for enlisted men in the 4th Brigade and accounts of military actions at Front Royal, Petersburg, Winchester, and Sharpsburg (Antietam). Earhart describes the effect of the Union occupation of the northern Shenandoah Valley on Unionist sympathies there, living on meager rations, and the death and destruction he has seen on the battlefield.

In addition to relating news of his experiences, Earhart writes of his concerns about his farm and gives specific instructions to his wife and family of slaves working the farm. He tells his wife how much wool to use for blankets for the slave family on the farm and warns the slaves to continue working hard.

In letters to his father, David Earhart discusses his unsuccessful effort to buy a substitute to enable him to come home and manage the farm. Other subjects include: the death of a child, religious faith, disease, Greenwood Hospital in Albemarle County, Camp Steavenson, and Camp Winder in Caroline County.

Miscellaneous Correspondence dates from 22 February 1862 to 1 June 1863. It contains a letter from David Earhart's father-in-law John Caddall congratulating David Earhart on the birth of his son, George Fitzhugh Earhart, in 1862; a letter from J.D. Caddall (David Earhart's brother-in-law) to John Caddall informing him of David Earhart's death at the battle of Chancellorsville, and a letter from Lieutenant Hamilton D. Wade, Earhart's commanding officer, to Mary Elizabeth Caddall Earhart regarding Earhart's death and attempts to have his body sent home.

The collection contains three pictures: images (probably ambrotypes) of David and Mary Elizabeth Caddell Earhart in matching wooden cases, ca. 1862, and a carte de visite, ca. 1880, of Mary Elizabeth Caddell Earhart.