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.

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) (1822-1885) to Officers Commanding Troops in Southern States

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02306 Author/Creator: Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) (1822-1885) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph document signed Date: 20 March 1866 Pagination: 1 p. : envelope ; 26 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Instructs troops in Southern States to welcome historian Benson J. Lossing. Lossing was visiting the South for the purpose of "seeing different battle fields and [illustrating] them for the benefit of the future reader of the scenes though which this country has passed." States that favors granted to Lossing will be appreciated by Lossing and himself. With original official envelope on which Grant has penned "Introducing Mr. B.F. Lossing Historian".

Ulysses S. Grant served as one of the most noted commanders in Civil War history and as eighteenth United States president from 1869-1877.
Benson J. Lossing was an interviewer, wood engraver, author, editor and historian noted for his sketchbook history of the American Revolution. Lossing later published the Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War based on observations he gathered in the South following Grant's letter.

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885
Lossing, Benson John, 1813-1891

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