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The Correspondence is arranged chronologically. Correspondence discusses personal and family matters; presidential elections; the Mexican War; the annexation of Texas and Oregon (1845); the activities of McCalla and others in the Democratic and American Parties; the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln and the coming of the Civil War; various business ventures in Kentucky and Washington, D.C.; letters from several former McCalla slaves who settled in Liberia (circa 1834 and 1836); conditions in the Eastern Lunatic Asylum in Lexington, Kentuckey (circa 1826); McCalla's duties as U.S. marshal for the District of Kentucky; and his service as 2nd auditor in the Treasury Department.

Correspondence pertains mainly to Lee’s legal practice. Correspondents include his brothers, Charles Henry Lee, Richard Henry Lee, and Cassius Francis Lee, as well as other family members, including Lee’s son, Edwin Gray Lee. Other correspondents include Jubal A. Early and William Nelson Pendleton. Subjects include Confederate refugees in Canada, the formation of West Virginia as a state, conditions of Virginia in 1865, and bridge and turnpike construction and management. Also includes a letter from Rezin D. Shepherd from 1841 regarding the clock tower for Trinity Episcopal Church in Shepherdstown, WV. Letters from Edwin Gray Lee describe his service in the Confederate army and allude to his later work in the Confederate secret service in Virginia and Canada. Arranged chronologically by year.

The family's correspondence includes letters across several generations of Slades and their business associates, friends, and relatives, centering around the family's plantations, farming, and fisheries in and around Williamston, Martin County, N.C.; Tennessee; and Georgia. Early letters document on the activities of Jeremiah Slade, a general during the War of 1812. His letters tend to relate to the fisheries, legal cases, and business issues. Slade served as a North Carolina State Senator from 1809 to 1815, so some correspondence relates to court cases and other activities of the Senate. All materials relating to his role as Commissioner for the Tuscarora Indians has been removed to the Tuscarora Nation Series.

Leech and Dewey family letters. Correspondents include Richard Holland, Cornelius Duryea, John King, Mrs. Holdridge Dewey, Holdridge Newcomb "Nuke" Dewey (Holdridge’s son and John Leech's father-in-law), Sarah Thorne, Simon Dunne, Edgar Skinner, John Leech, A.P. Sayles, and Kate Dunn.