Draper's annotated correspondence, 1867-1888, accompanied by newspaper clippings, and a few interviews all of which concentrate on Tecumseh's life, 1811-1813, and on the War of 1812 in the West. Among the major topics are William H. Harrison and the battle of Tippecanoe; Daniel Curtis and the siege of Fort Wayne; Isaac Brock, William Hull, and the surrender of Detroit; the battle of Frenchtown or the Raisin River defeat; the battle of the Thames and Tecumseh's death; and Henry Dodge, Pierre Menard, John B. St. Gem and the Shawnee of southern Illinois and Missouri. Draper's correspondents included soldiers and other participants in or observers of these events and their descendants.

A series of letters of Detroit banker C.C. Trowbridge, once secretary to Michigan governor Lewis Cass, contain reminiscences and commentary about Cass, his Shawnee interpreter Joe Parks, James D. Doty, Thomas L. McKenney, the Prophet, and Henry R. Schoolcraft. Other persons and families about whom there are references in other correspondence are George Coffinberry, Hubert Lacroix (La Croix, d. 1824), the Miami chiefs Little Turtle and White Loon, John McCawley, Abraham and Stephen Ruddell, James Simrall (1780-1823) and Simrall genealogy, John Tipton, and Walter Wilson (1782-1837).

Only two early records are in the volume: a manuscript detailing the proceedings and speeches at a meeting between the Shawnee led by Black Hoof and whites led by G.B. Whiteman held in Champaign County, Ohio, on December 4, 1811; and an undated draft of a narrative on the Tippecanoe campaign dictated by Peter Funk, one of Harrison's captains.