The collection consists of the diary of William J. Lacey, private with Co. C, 11th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry. Although the diary is for 1860, Lacey appears not to have acquired the volume until 1861. As a result, he has hand corrected the date and year throughout the volume. The front of the diary includes scattered notes, while the majority of the entries were written between July 1861 and February 1862, at which point Lacey appears to have gone on furlough.

The diary recounts Lacey's on-going struggles with illness. His first significant entry begins at Winchester, Virginia, July 17, 1861. He remarks that the "south will owe a debt of deep gratitude to her sons who are perilling health + life for her. A battle is nothing. It is the suffering otherwise that we have to undergo. may god smile upon our effort." Lacey's ill health continues to plague him. Lacey's early entries detail his experiences at First Manassas/Battle of Bull Run and at other sites near Charlottesville and Gordonsville, Virginia. In addition, like many soldiers, Lacey frequent records the weather, letters written and received, and the latest movements of his regiment. Aside from cash accounts at the end of the diary, Lacey's final note, written into the memoranda pages and providing contact information should anything happen to him, was dated February 1863 at Richmond.