Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Sickles, Daniel E. (1819-1914) to David Birney

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01599 Author/Creator: Sickles, Daniel E. (1819-1914) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: January 1864 Pagination: 4 p. ; 19 x 12 cm. Order a Copy

Discusses a congressional investigation into General George G. Meade for disciplining officers who testified before the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War after Meade let Lee escape after Gettysburg. Tells Major General Birney to give his true opinion to Congress and that he will urge his contacts in the Congress and the Secretary of War to back off. Also mentions having dinner with President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, where he also met Henry Halleck and Meade. Meade was later exonerated and received a vote of thanks from Congress.

Sickles, Daniel Edgar, 1819-1914
Birney, David Bell, 1825-1864

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