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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.

Birney, David Bell (1825-1864) [Regarding a furlough request]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03476.08 Author/Creator: Birney, David Bell (1825-1864) Place Written: Hampton, Virginia Type: Autograph endorsement signed Date: 1 April 1862 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 25 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Birney's autograph endorsement signed on verso of a letter in which Captain Daniel E. Gavit writes to his captain Chauncey McKeever requesting a fifteen day furlough because his family house is in foreclosure. Other autograph endorsements signed include McKeever, Colonel George W. Mindil, John Henry Hobart Ward and Charles S. Hamilton. Although the other officers approve the furlough, Hamilton, the senior officer, disapproves of it, and the furlough is rejected.

Charles S. Hamilton was a Union Brigadier General of Volunteers, later promoted to Major General.

Hamilton, Charles Smith, 1822-1891
Gavit, Daniel E., 1819-1875
McKeever, Chauncey, 1829-1901
Mindil, George Washington, 1843-1907
Ward, John Henry Hobart, 1823-1903
Birney, David Bell, 1825-1864

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