• Mimeographed typewritten copy, titled "THE CIVIL WAR DIARY OF PVT. JOHN HENRY BLILER (A CONDENSATION)". Typewritten numbers in lower right corners of pages: 1-9.
• Presents abridged transcribed entries from Bliler's original diary.
• This version also apparently created by previous owners, Roy K. Bliler, and his wife, Dixie K. Bliler of Houston, Texas.

• Six notebooks or exercise tablets, each measuring 26 x 21 cm.
• Five of the exercise tablets have red cloth taped binding at the tops, with white machine ruled pages and white paper covers, illustrated with a design which includes the United States flag with 44 gold stars and thirteen stripes on it, aloft against a pale blue sky, with "THE STARS AND STRIPES" in gold letters outlined in red at the top.
• Since these tablets couldn't have been produced at least until after 1890 when Wyoming became the forty-fourth state in the Union, this copy of the diary had to have been copied out twenty-five years or more after the original entries were made in 1862-1865.
• The sixth exercise tablet is similar in size, but with green tape binding at the top, a buff-colored cover, and a design incorporating a leaf and vine design in which the words "A COLUMBUS EXERCISE TABLET, PRICE 5 CTS" is divided in the center by a round seal of a sun rising over a tree-surrounded field of harvested wheat sheaves labeled "THE SEAL OF OHIO LINE". Below is an underlined space labeled "Name" and beside it another underlined space labeled "Teacher".
• All six notebooks have been rubber-stamped in black ink on covers and all pages, probably by a later owner in the twentieth century, with a three-line label: "Civil War Diary of, John Henry Bliler, 1862-1863-1864-1865".
• Front covers of the notebooks are also inscribed in ink as well, apparently in John Henry Bliler's hand, with a numbering sequence as follows:
  • "no 2 of 7 AND No. 1 of 7"
  • "No 3 OF 7, From November 11, 1863, To May 16 [carat] inclusive 1864"
  • "NO 4 OF 7, From May 17, 1864, To [unclear] 3rd [ditto i.e. 1864] inclusive"
  • "NO 5 OF 7, From October 4, 1864, to November 30 inclusive 1864"
  • "From November 30, 1865 to April 12, 1863 [Note: part of this in pencil to replace information from a torn area on cover], No 6 OF 7"
  • "No 7 OF 7"
• Pages of the diary are numbered continuously in the lower right corner of each notebook in pencil: 1-9 [i.e. 8], 9, 11-25 [notebook "No 2"]; 26-44 [notebook "No 3"]; 45-64 [notebook "No 4"]; 65-83 [notebook "No 5"]; 84-106 [notebook "No 6"]; 107-123 [notebook "No 7"].
• The penciled page numbers and a few other notes were probably made by a later owner of the diary, to construct the index which accompanies the photostatic copy of the original pages and the typewritten transcript held in a blue three-ring binder, described in Series 2. The text of the black-inked three-line rubber stamped label on the notebooks' covers and pages match exactly that of the typed label affixed to the front cover of this blue three-ring binder.
• Each of the first five exercise books is also stamped in blue ink on the cardboard back cover with a three-line label: "From STEIGLER BROS., 520 Central Avenue, HOT SPRINGS, - ARK." Steigler Brothers is a bookstore and may have been the original purveyor of the blank exercise books.
• Entries written by Bliler are in pencil and black or blue ink. All pages have come apart from the top bindings of the exercise tablets. Some water damage obscures a few entries, and a very few pages have torn edges by which portions of entries have been lost irretrievably, but the handwriting is overall very legible.

• All materials are contained in a blue three-ring binder with labels on the front cover and spine "CIVIL WAR DIARY OF JOHN HENRY BLILER", the front label including the sequence of years "1862-1863-1864-1865". Created by previous owners, Roy K. Bliler and his wife, Dixie K. Bliler of Houston, Texas.
• Single-page index photocopy, titled "INDEX TO CIVIL WAR DIARY [J.H. BLILER]", includes a chart with headings for "DATE [of diary entry], HAND PAGE [handwritten diary page number], TYPE PAGE [typewritten transcript page number], LOCATION [geographical place names]" repeated in three columns. Rubber stamped in black ink on the back twice with three-line name and address: "Roy K. or Dixie A. Bliler, 3213 Heatherwood Drive, Bryan, Texas 77801," with a 7-digit phone number written in ink below the address. Also, an original pencil copy of the index, without title, but with clearer note than the photocopy in the bottom margin for asterisks marked inside some "HAND PAGE" cells, which are keyed to "FIGHTING".
• Typed transcript photocopy, titled "CIVIL WAR DIARY OF JOHN HENRY BLILER" - 1862-1862-1864-1865 crossed out in ink on page one, but thereafter the year-appropriate to the entries on the page of the transcript is circled in the title, which occurs on each page of John Henry Bliler. The original paper was three-hole punched on the left side of the page, and numbered by hand in the lower left and right corners of each page 1-63, 63 [i.e. 64]-66. Page one is labeled below the title by hand as "Preface," and p. 66 had "THE END" typed at the end of the text in the original copy.

This diary serves as John Henry Bliler's account of the Civil War. It was kept in the Bliler family, in some form since the Civil War, up until it was acquired by the repository.

It looks that Bliler copied over his original diary several times himself, and this last copy occupies all but a few leaves of the five exercise tablets. As noted in the description of Series 1, these first five exercise books could not possibly have contained a copy made any earlier than 1890. The only exception seems to be a portion of the last tablet, which is filled by entries copied over in pencil in 1944 by one of Bliler's descendants, Ardath Bliler Kelly, reportedly since the family copy had become quite damaged by then.

Thus, according to p. 56 of the typewritten transcript of the diary entries in the five exercise books, "[John Henry] Bliler copied his account of the Civil War three times during his lifetime. The last copy was made shortly before his death in 1924." On page number 116 in pencil in the fifth exercise book, an entry from March 31, 1944, made in different handwriting reads "The following copied from by [sic.] originally by Ardath Bliler Kelly, granddaughter of the narrator [sic.]. The original is ragged and yellowed and crumbling." Entries which are thus copied on p. 116-123 of this last exercise book are out of order, dated June 24, [1865] - June 29, 1865, followed by a note in Ardath Bliler Kelly's hand, "A portion of the original omitted in the copy," then the dates January 24 - January 31, 1865.

The typed transcript and index were probably made by Roy K. Bliler later than 1944, and not too long previous to when it was received by the repository. This transcript preserves the original order of John Henry Bliler's diary entries.

• Photocopy made by the repository in February 2003 on archival paper to use as a surrogate, or for reproduction purposes of all materials in the notebook, as well as the condensation of the diary.