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The Elliot Cross and James A. Cross Civil War Collection documents the Southern perspective of the American Civil War. As FAU's largest collection dedicated solely to the Civil War, the Cross collection contains hundreds of manuscript and published items including personal correspondence from Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, Robert E. Lee and many other Confederate military and government leaders. Also included are Confederate government documents and general orders pertaining to the war as well as photographs and illustrations from the period. The Cross Collection was donated by Elliot Cross' son James A. Cross in the early 1970s, following his father's death. Elliot Cross, a life-long aficionado of the Confederacy, purchased papers, lithographs and prints, currency, published and unpublished letters and memorabilia over a period of forty years. FAU Libraries received the collection mounted in four custom-made maroon leather scrapbooks. The items have been removed from these scrapbooks for preservation purposes. The publication of several articles about the collection in 1988 led to research by Civil War scholars that culminated in ground-breaking publication. One such breakthrough identified pneumonia as T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson's cause of death; a thesis supported by documents in the Cross Collection and published in Robert K. Krick's, The Smoothbore Volley that Doomed the Confederacy: the Death of Stonewall Jackson and other Chapters on the Army of Northern Virginia. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002).

The Ellyn F. Walters Collection contains correspondence, professional papers, programs, photographs, awards, objects, and a scrapbook belonging to Ellyn F. Walters of Fort Lauderdale, Florida during her service as a teacher, fundraiser, and community leader.

Emanuel Lamb served with the Heavy Weapons Company of the 89th Infantry Division. Collection includes letters from Emanuel and his brother Mandy during their time serving overseas, mainly discussing their daily lives, censorship, and treatment of prisoners of war, as well as a complete oral history transcript between Emanuel Lamb and an interviewer discussing his time in combat and his memories of the Battle of the Bulge. There are also newspaper clippings, photocopies of identification cards and ephemera included in the collection.