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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.

Smith, Asa to mother

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03696.04 Author/Creator: Smith, Asa Place Written: Camp Hamilton, Hampton, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 25 November 1861 Pagination: 4 p. ; 20.3 x 12.4 cm. Order a Copy

to mother [Ann Smith] He notes the arrival of three regiments, saying that it appears there is going to be a fight and implying that Yorktown will be hurt by the Union's forces. He describes how troops from Delaware caught a Confederate soldier, and also captured six more Confederates nearby. He tells of an altercation between the Massachusetts 16th and the New York 20th, a largely German unit. The New York 20th men attacked a Massachusetts 16th soldier one day, which resulted in a huge brawl where the New York 20th got the worse of it. He tells about giving up their meals to a cavalry unit that did not have food. He expresses sentiment that he wants to join the home guard when he gets back because he loves "sojering" so much. Numbered in pencil "27."

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