This collection contains twenty-nine letters written from April 1864 to November 1865 by Lewis A. Waterman while serving in the United States Signal Corps, chiefly while posted at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Waterman's earliest letters of 1864 are written from Georgetown, D.C. during his training as a Signal Corps recruit. He recounts his trip to Kansas under siege of Missouri bushwhackers in June 1864 and activities and conditions of soldiers at Fort Leavenworth in 1864 and 1865. In his accounts of various incidents, Waterman describes a military engagement between Colonel Charles Jennison of Fort Leavenworth and William Quantrill's guerrillas, as well as incidents at the Fort in 1865 related to General Lee's surrender and President Lincoln's assassination. He also describes his adventures on the plains during his Julesburg, Colorado expedition, his anticipation of discharge, and his future prospects.

Waterman's letters are written to his family members at Providence, Rhode Island--his mother Britannia Franklin Patt, his sister Emily Frances Waterman, and his brother-in-law Lewis Williams Anthony (husband of Waterman's sister Britannia). One letter is written to his brother Frank, who served in the Rhode Island Light Artillery's First Regiment during much of Waterman's service in the Signal Corps.

Letter arrangement is chronological, with many of the letters accompanied by postmarked envelopes. Most letters and envelopes are embossed either with Signal Corps insignia or with the letters "L. A. W."

At RH MS-P 515 are twenty cartes de visites of Signal Corps soldiers who served at Fort Leavenworth during Waterman's tour of duty.