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.

Sarsons, Eleazer L. (b. 1836) to C.W. Foster

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03953.02 Author/Creator: Sarsons, Eleazer L. (b. 1836) Place Written: Acworth, New Hampshire Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 12 September 1865 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 32 x 20.5 cm. Order a Copy

Writes to Colonel Foster, the assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, to request that he be allowed to remain in the service in a "colored organization." Recounts his history of service in the Union Army since 1861, which included a period as a prisoner of war in Andersonville Prison. A signed endorsement by Foster appears on the verso, paving the way for an "appointment as 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Colored Troops."

Captain Eleazer Sarsons joined Company F, 4th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment as a private in 1861 and later served as the First Sergeant in the Company F, 4th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment.

Sarsons, Eleazer L., b. 1836
Foster, Charles Warren, 1838-1916

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