The Pugh correspondence comprises twelve letters written by two members of a Western Pennsylvania Quaker family, father and son, during the Civil War. Joseph T. Pugh authored six of the letters. The six remaining letters in the correspondence were written by John Pugh (1833/4-1924), the oldest child of Joseph and Nancy Pugh. Of John's six siblings, five are mentioned in the correspondence, including Sarah Ann (b. 1835/6); Evan (b. 1839/40); Cecilia (b. 1847/8); Irene (b. 1850); and Henry (b. 1853/4). The first of his letters, dated 30 March 1862 and addressed to his brother Evan, finds him a newly rated yeoman — a petty officer with primarily clerical responsibilities — aboard the U.S.S. Quaker City, then stationed at St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies. The five remaining letters, written from 21 June to 27 July 1862 to family members at New Brighton, describe life aboard the Quaker City when that ship was serving in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, operating out of Key West, Florida. The central narrative of Pugh's letter refers to the seizing of the British steamer Adela in the Bahamas on 7 July. Finally, the letter of 26 July discusses the capture, two days before, of the British schooner Orion in the Gulf of Mexico. Such a flurry of activity, in a period of less than two months, was remarkable for any ship on blockade duty; it perhaps explains the survival of these particular letters. Of the six letters in the collection written by Joseph Pugh, five date from the summer of 1864, when Pugh was living not in New Brighton but in Columbus, Ohio. The letters discuss Pugh's affairs in Columbus and inquire after the family at home. A central concern is the well-being of Joseph's son Evan Pugh, then serving in Co. G, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry, in the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Absent from the letters — and equally absent from the letters of John Pugh — is any mention of the family's wartime activities in the context of their membership in the Society of Friends.

Minor textual additions in blue pencil, in Joseph Pugh's hand.