The Brothertons were a farm family from the Sherrill’s Ford section of Catawba County, North Carolina. At the time of the 1860 Federal Census, Thomas Brotherton (b. ca. 1802) and his wife, Nancy (b. ca. 1807), were living on their farm with three grown children, James (b. ca. 1840), William (b. ca. 1841), and Martha (b. ca. 1843). William H. Brotherton enlisted as a private in Co. K, 23rd North Carolina Infantry on August 8, 1862. He was captured at Winchester, Virginia on September 19, 1864, confined at Point Lookout, and paroled in March 1865. In addition to the letters written by William H. Brotherton, the collection also includes letters written by various relatives serving in the 23rd, 34th and 52nd North Carolina Infantry.