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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.

Price, Sterling (1809-1867) to Thomas C. Reynolds

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05014 Author/Creator: Price, Sterling (1809-1867) Place Written: Camden, Arkansas Type: Autograph letter signed Date: July 22, 1864 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 25 x 19.7 cm. + 1 engraving ; b&w ; 29 x 20.1 cm Order a Copy

Confederate General Price replies to a letter from Reynolds, Governor of Missouri, in which Reynolds asked whether Price would command an expedition into Missouri. Writes, "I consider such an expedition practicable, and in the contingency you suggest desirable and important." Price agrees to take command of the expedition if General Smith (possibly Edmund Kirby Smith) does not intend on taking possession of the Arkansas Valley. Transmits a copy of the St. Louis Democrat (not included) reporting Confederate possession of Platte City, Missouri. Of the possession, writes "It is significant that a company of State Troops sent to defend Platte City, went over in a body with their arms to the Confederates. My opinion is that the people of Missouri are ready for a general uprising and that the time was never more propitious for an advance of our forces into Missouri." Writes that Senator Mitchell (possibly Charles B. Mitchel, Confederate Senator of Arkansas) informed him that President Jefferson Davis encouraged a military advance into Missouri. Assumes that reports of an expedition led by Union General Edward R. S. Canby to penetrate the Trans-Mississippi Department are false, intended to prevent an advance into Missouri. Docketed by Reynolds. One black and white bust engraving of Sterling Price included.

Price, Sterling, 1809-1867
Reynolds, Thomas C. (Thomas Caute), 1821-1887
Kirby-Smith, Edmund, 1824-1893
Canby, Edward Richard Sprigg, 1817-1873
Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889
Mitchel, Chas. B. (Charles Burton), 1815-1864

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