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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.

Penfield, James Allen (d. 1910) [Union Prisoner of War autograph album]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02262 Author/Creator: Penfield, James Allen (d. 1910) Place Written: Columbia, South Carolina Type: Manuscript signed Date: 1864 - 31 December 1864 Pagination: 182 p. ; 20 x 13 cm. Order a Copy

Contains over 900 prisoner of war officer signatures and their ranks. Ornate hand drawn title page, "Autographs of U. S. Officers, Prisoners of War confined at Richmond, Virginia, Macon, Georgia - Savannah Georgia - Charleston, South Carolina - Columbia, South Carolina - Charlotte, North Carolina J.A. Penfield, Major 5th New York Cavalry." Title page signed "Yours Truly," by Lieutenant J. Arthur Richardson but his company or regiment is cut off the bottom of the page. Some names have been annotated in graphite in a later hand. Also contains a similar page of pen art entitled "Song Sherman's March to the Sea," composed by S.H.M. [Samuel Hawkins Marshall] Byers, Adjutant 5th Iowa Infantry, Prisoner of War, Columbia, South Carolina. The song is Asylum Camp, Columbia, South Carolina, Feb. 1, 1865. Rebound in late 19th century quarter leather, with (later) period paper interleaved and calligraphic title page inserted. Records show Penfield as a wounded POW at Hagerstown, Maryland on 6 July 1863, and confined at Camp Asylum, Columbia, South Carolina 12 December 1864.

John Arthur Richardson, 2nd Lieutenant, 2nd NY Cavalry, is listed as POW on 3 July 1863 at Gettysburg, and released 1 March 1865 in Northeast Ferry, North Carolina. Records show Penfield as a wounded POW at Hagerstown, Maryland on 6 July 1863, and confined at Camp Asylum, Columbia, South Carolina 12 December 1864.

Penfield, James Allen, ?-1910
Byers, Samuel Hawkins Marshall, 1838-1933

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