The Eugene S. Mitchell Collection consists mainly of items from Mitchell's education at Mercer University (1857-1860) and correspondence from during and after the American Civil War (1862-1871).

Series 1 consists of correspondence, mostly from Mitchell to Chloe Emma Lewis, his future wife. The bulk of the letters were written between 1863 and 1865 from Mitchell’s service in the Virginia battlefields of the Civil War. Only three letters in the collection were written by people other than Mitchell as follows: One was written by Chloe Emma Lewis to Eugene Mitchell; a second letter was written to Mitchell by a S. N.(?) Robbins; a third was written by Mitchell’s Aunt Julia. Each letter is in its own folder due to fragility and size.

In addition to the Correspondence, the Mitchell collection contains a pamphlet of a printed speech addressed to the Phi Delta Society of Mercer University in 1857 by R. E. Rester. The papers also include a diploma from Mercer University, the marriage license for Chloe Lewis and Eugene Mitchell, and a tintype of Mitchell in a brown union case disconnected at the hinge. The photograph is in its own box and the diploma is loose. All are contained in an archival oversized box to accommodate the varying sizes of the items in the collection.

Letters from Mitchell record his feelings about the war itself, specific battles, and hardships of camp life and life on the march. He refers to well-known Confederates, as Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, and Robert E. Lee, sometimes in critical terms. Writing from Camp Gregg, Virginia, March 27 of 1863, Mitchell regales Chloe with a tale about the Confederate and Union armies on each side of the Rappahannock and a Union band playing, its performance ending with “Dixie” to the yells of the Confederates, followed by “Yankee Doodle,” and then “Home Sweet Home.” In a letter from August 6, 1863, Mitchell speaks of hearing that southern women have lost faith in the war and worries this is the case with Chloe, whom he attempts to encourage.

Mitchell writes of campaigns in which his regiment has fought and others in which he has not fought and how he perceives the war is proceeding. He describes the battle at Chancellorsville and the death of Stonewall Jackson in May of 1863 and a year later waxes somewhat poetic in regard to nature and its negative rather than positive effect on the soldier. He writes at the end of August, 1864, of reasons for his inability to pen a letter to Chloe and describes the various types of weaponry fired from the Union lines and forts they have built. In a later letter Mitchell speaks of his desire for a furlough and of his deep feelings for the soldiers in his regiment; he writes that he doesn’t get ill seriously enough to warrant leave but that “a slight wound would be desirable.”

Some of Mitchell’s letters simply speak of his feelings for Chloe, but in December of 1864 he begins a discourse on Sherman and his sojourn in Georgia, a topic that appears in other correspondence. In his letter of December 21, 1864, Mitchell writes of the rumor of Jefferson Davis’ death and tells Chloe that he is very ill, cautioning her not to mention that fact to his mother or Aunt J(ulia). The letter of July 8, 1865, finds Mitchell imprisoned in Fort Delaware, and on August 22, 1865, affirms his love for Chloe from Newtown, Maryland. This letter concludes Mitchell’s war correspondence. Following ones are from towns in Georgia as he approaches his marriage to Chloe in October of 1867.