A brief Biographical sketch (in Local and National Poets of America published in 1890) states that John Preston Campbell was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 8, 1842 and that he was the son of John and Nancy J. Campbell, both of Scottish ancestry. He mustered into service as a private in Battery H, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery on October 14, 1862 and mustered out as first sergeant on June 28, 1865. He was wounded in the fighting around Petersburg on April 2, 1865. After the war, he went west and lived first in Iowa (where he graduated from college and became a lawyer) and then in Kansas, where he had a successful career as a teacher, lawyer, and lecturer. He also published six volumes of poetry. At the time of the 1860 Census, John P. Campbell was living in the household of a farmer named Jeremiah Russell Smith in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. His age in the 1860 Census is listed as 16 and his place of birth as Nova Scotia. His biographical sketch states that he was “brought up” in the Smith household, which included Jeremiah’s wife, Christiana, a son, William R. Smith (age 21), and a daughter, Harriett (age 11). The letters in this collection written to members of the Smith family, especially Jeremiah R. Smith.