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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.

United States. War Dept. [Salaries for War Department employees]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.04895 Author/Creator: United States. War Dept. Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Manuscript document Date: 1 April 1791 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 32.5 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Record of salaries owed and paid by the War office for the months of January, February, and March of 1791. Includes salaries for the Secretary of War (Henry Knox), John Stagg, Reiner John Van den Brock, Benjamin Bankson, Philip Audebert, and Caesar Lloyd Cummings (who signs with his mark).. All of the men, except for Knox, sign on page two as receiving payment. Docket notes salaries were paid on 4 April 1791.

Caesar Lloyd Cummings (d. 1792), one of six civilian employees in the War Department, was a free black man. He worked as the department messenger. (At least one source indicates that Cummings had served there since the Board of War's creation in 1777.)

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Van den Brock, Reiner John, fl. 1789-1796
Bankson, Benjamin, fl. 1791-1792
Cummings, Cesar Lloyd, fl. 1790-1792
Stagg, John, Jr., 1758-1803
Audebert, Philip, fl. 1788-1796

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