June 9, 1864

Lee, Robert E., 1807-1870

Letter signed

Title: to Jefferson Davis

Written less than a week after the Battle of Cold Harbor, 1-3 June 1864, where Union General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates. Lee attempts to anticipate Grant's next move and warns of another major engagement. Lee notifies Davis of his plans to check Grant's advances by sending General Jubal Early to deal with Union General David Hunter, and General Wade Hampton and Fitz Hugh Lee to handle Union General Philip Sheridan. These moves forced the Union generals to abandon the valley. Lee seeks information through captured prisoners and newspaper reports about union troop strength…

GLC01026

December 15, 1810

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to David Howell

Jefferson attacks the Federalists as favoring hereditary rule. Free franked. Mentions that public news draws him from reading Tacitus and Horace, which he calls "more agreeable reading." He also mentions Gov. Fenner of Rhode Island. Jefferson praises Fenner, who controlled state politics for many years. Jefferson writes that he wants to avoid writing things that will be quoted. Apparently Howell asked Jefferson's opinion of his successors. Written in Monticello

GLC01027

August 10, 1863

Buckner, Simon Bolivar, 1823-1914

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John S. Preston

Confederate general Buckner asks Colonel Preston to have some letters of General John Hunt Morgan's wife sent to Confederate President Jefferson Davis to be forwarded to Morgan, who was in a Union prison camp in Ohio. Partial docket on verso; lower half of the page is missing.

GLC01050

28 November 1898

McKinley, William, 1843-1901

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [Draft letter]

Discusses appointing a governor to Havana, Cuba. Written in pencil on Executive Mansion letterhead. Some words have been retouched by another hand.

GLC00970

April 10, 1861

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Letter signed

Title: to his Holiness, Pope Pius IX

Letter of credence for Rufus King as U.S. Minister to Papal States.

GLC01000

August 2, 1864

Wharton, John A., 1828-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John G. Walker

Discusses the "disposition of forces under my command" with Major General Walker. Comments on their locations and plans to move. He intends to go to Black River. Confederate Major General Wharton commanded the cavalry in the Trans-Mississippi Department during the Red River Campaign of 1864.

GLC00973

circa 1897

Edwards, Oliver, 1835-1904

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Russel Alger

Draft copy, no place or date. Edwards, Brevet Major General U. S. Volunteers, writes to Alger as Secretary of War. Discusses a medal wrongly awarded by the War Department to a private for the capture of General Custis Lee at the Battle of Sailor's [i.e. Saylor's] Creek, Virginia, 6 April 1865. Claims that David White of the 37th Massachusetts Volunteers actually should have received the medal instead of the private in the 121st New York Volunteers. Explains the battle and the circumstances of the capture. Date inferred from Alger's tenure as Secretary of War (1897-1898).

GLC00998

July 9, 1862

Bixby, Horace, fl. 1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Andrew H. Foote

Bixby, seeking a mail contract, asks Foote to recommend him to Postmaster General Montgomery Blair. Notes that Flag Officer Davis has already written such a letter. Adds that in the event of his flotilla being turned over to the navy, and there being a grade of pilot established, he would like to get the position of Pilot in Chief. Andrew Foote autograph note signed at bottom of recto says "Mr. Bixby is a clever, honest man. A. H. Foote U.S. Navy." Written while aboard the Flagship "Benton".

GLC00999

1864

Pratt, Oliver D., fl. 1863-1864

Diary

Title: [Diary Oliver D. Pratt]

Autograph manuscript signed. Pratt served in Co. L, 1st Battalion, 4th Massachusetts Cavalry. Approximately 100 pages written in pencil. Military content about war in Virginia. Dated June 10- October 1, 1864.

GLC01003.01

July 26, 1924

Mitchell, William E., 1879-1936

Typed letter signed

Title: to Lester D. Gardner

Signed as Brigadier General, Air Service, Assistant Chief of Air Service. Advises that he will come to New York as soon as possible but that he has to have his tonsils out. Remarks that the Air Force "has almost ceased to exist ... " Believes that the Air Force needs to separate from the Army and Navy. He thinks that American navy power could easily be destroyed by Japan's air power. In his opinion, protecting the sea is the "only sure method of national defense that we have at the present time ... " Typed on note stationery of the War Department, Air Service, Washington.

GLC00950

April 20, 1865

Brady, Mathew B., 1823-1896

Photograph

Title: [Robert E. Lee and staff]

Photographed on Lee's back porch in Richmond, shortly after his surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. Depicts General Robert E. Lee with his son, Brigadier General George Washington Custis Lee, and Colonel Walter H. Taylor, Lee's aide-de-camp during the Civil War. Lee is seated, flanked by the other men.

GLC00957

April 21, 1861

Bragg, Braxton, 1817-1876

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry J. Hunt

Writes to his old friend and comrade about the turn of events their lives have taken over the last year and expresses is his regret over them being on opposite sides in the war. "How strange are the mutations of life! That we should be in hostile array against each other. A few short months since companions in army, and almost brothers in friendship, it is hard to realize the fact that we are in hostile array against each other." Believes that each of them will have to follow their own conscience but warns that every southerner is "united in the cause." States "we have asked for peace,…

GLC00925.01

May 9, 1866

Sheridan, Philip Henry, 1831-1888

Letter signed

Title: to J. J. Crosby

Orders Colonel Crosby to inspect the steamer "Virgin" to see if it had been used as a slaver. Written on printed stationery of "Headquarters Military Division of the Gulf, New Orleans, La." "Mobile" has been crossed-out and the steamer "Virgin" has been substituted.

GLC00930.02

27 November 1865

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891

Autograph endorsement signed

Title: to David D. Porter

Autograph endorsement signed of Sherman to Porter on a letter of Lewis Wolfery, a resident of Louisville, Kentucky to Sherman dated 23 November 1865. Wolfery writes to General Sherman to inform him that, on the recommendation of Copperhead Representative Burwell Ritter, James Wheeler, a former Confederate guerrilla who was tried as a spy, had been appointed to Annapolis Naval Academy over "two true Union boys," Tommy David Jackson and James Gore. Wolfery claims that Wheeler was, " ... a rebel soldier, one of the meanest types that while belonging to the army was back in the State,…

GLC00947

03 August 1865

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Document signed

Title: [Presidential pardon and authority to the Secretary of State to affix the seal to the pardon of John Alsop of Spotsylvania for rebellion].

Alsop, took part of a rebellion against the government. He was granted full pardon and amnesty by President Andrew Johnson to all the offences he committed. Countersigned by the Secretary of State William H. Seward.

GLC01111

22 August 1879

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph quotation signed

Title: [Douglass quotation on each citizen's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness]

One note from Frederick Douglass dated August 22, 1879. Writes that the government owes every citizen equal opportunity to live and when it does not provide this service should be overthrown.

GLC01116

26 March 1862

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Printed document signed

Title: [Commission of Orville Babcock as a First Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers]

Partially printed form from an engraving signed by President Lincoln and countersigned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Note signed by Adjutant G. Thomas on top left corner indicating the commission was recorded on 27 March 1862 in "Volume 17. Page 70." Includes a blue seal intact. Orville Babcock was later U.S. Grant's aide.

GLC01128

29 May 1795

Paterson, William, 1745-1806

Autograph manuscript

Title: [Bench notes on the Whiskey Rebellion trial, United State v. John Barnet]

Supreme Court Justice Paterson's notes prepared while sitting as a judge of U.S. Circuit Court. Paterson's notes contain a detailed record of the rebellion and a discussion of the legal definition of treason, which this case helped to shape. Barnett was among several rebels tried for treason for participating in the Whiskey Rebellion. He was acquitted.

GLC01114

1865 ca.

Benham, Henry Washington, 1813-18884

Photograph signed

Title: Carte de visite by Charles D. Fredricks & Co.

GLC00919.06

November 23, 1863

Benham, Henry Washington, 1813-18884

Manuscript letter

Title: to Joseph Totten

Clerically written from Washington, D.C. to General Totten, regarding plan for rebuilding bridges.

GLC00919.16

January 24, 1801

Adams, John, 1735-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George Churchman and Jacob Lindley

Written by Adams in the last months of his presidency to the Quaker abolitionists Churchman and Lindley. Adams wrote in response to a letter and pamphlet that the two abolitionists had sent him. The pamphlet was by Quaker abolitionist Warner Mifflin (1745-1798). Expresses his views on slavery. Says "Although I have never sought by any animated speeches or inflammatory publications against the Slavery of the Blacks, my Opinion against it has always been known and my practice has been So conformable to my Sentiment that I have always employed freemen both as Domisticks and Labourers, and never…

GLC00921

December 17, 1860

Harris, Isham G., 1818-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas J. Wharton

Harris, Governor of Tennessee, replies to a letter from Wharton, Mississippi's Commissioner to Tennessee. States that when Tennessee Representatives confer again, they will be pleased to meet with Wharton "as the Representative of a sister state with which we are identified in interest and in the very nature of things must share a common destiny." Declares "There is great unanimity of sentiment in Tennessee as to the necessity of a Conferance of the southern states, for the purpose of assuring upon, and presenting an ultimatum, such as shall give perfect security to the rights of the people…

GLC00918

1865 ca.

Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872

Photograph signed

Title: E & H.T. Anthony Carte de visite

GLC00919.03

February 1862

Wright, Horatio G., 1820-1899

Photograph signed

Title: E & H.T. Anthony Carte de visite

GLC00919.09

January 1, 1863

Beach, Elias William, 1841-1921

Autograph letter signed

Title: to friends at home

Includes a description of army life.

GLC00919.11