The Eugene A. Kozlay Papers consists of a letterbook, 1860-1878, of incoming letters arranged in a rough chronological order. Included are letters which relate to requests for appointment of officers' posts in Kozlay's regiment, the incident of Kozlay's refusal to serve under General Blenker, legal problems involving what seems to be fraud in recruiting or in payment of regimental debts, administrative and personal problems in the regiment, requests from wives for information about their soldier husbands, Kozlay's attempts to be commissioned brigadier general, administrative matters in the post-war Freedmen's Bureau, and requests from soldiers who served in Kozlay's regiment for documents certifying their service so as to enable them to collect their pensions. Also included are a series of orders which reflect Kozlay's activities during the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, when he was in command of Folly's Island. Some of the orders contain detailed instructions for battle and one gives instructions regarding the transfer of prisoners.

Of particular interest are the letters from the grandfather of a young lieutenant to whom Adm. Kozlay had granted a commission and who had been court-martialed for some unidentifiable misconduct, 1864; letters which contain comments on the Democratic presidential candidates George B. McClellan and Pendleton and the Democratic platform, 1864; a letter dated September 23, 1863 in which a soldier describes his forced enlistment; and two letters from an officer in Kozlay's regiment describing the fighting quality of the black troops and relating an incident in which Kozlay was almost drowned, 1864. A number of the letters in this letterbook are written in German or Hungarian and have not been translated. Among the important and/or frequent correspondents are General C. H. Howard, Governor E. D. Morgan, F. W. Seward, General Daniel E. Sickles, Hiram Barney, Thomas H. Hay, Charles H. Meeker, A. D. Munson, F. A. Witthaus, and J. Pistas.

Since the letters are bound in chronological order, the inventory below also provides an alphabetical index of correspondents, with dates.