From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Pettus Collection. Letter from W. J. Rankin at Fordsville, Mississippi, to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus concerning a smuggling ring moving cotton to the United States in New Orleans, Louisiana.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Pettus Collection. Letter from William J. Rankin at Fordsville, Mississippi, to Mississippi Governor John Jones Pettus tendering the services of "Marion's men" (Company F, 7th Mississippi Infantry).

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Pettus Collection. Letter from William J. Rankin to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus offering the services of the 7th Mississippi Infantry in the war. The date is likely wrong and was meant to be June 29th 1861 not 1860.