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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.

Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) to Simon Cameron

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC08093 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 29 March 1861 Pagination: 1 p . : docket ; 33 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Orders Secretary of War Cameron to send a naval expedition to resupply Fort Sumter. Indicates that specific instructions were in an attached memorandum (not included) and instructs Cameron to cooperate with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles.

Executive Mansion
March 29. 1861
Honorable Secretary of War:
Sir - I desire that an expedition, to move by sea, be got ready to sail as early as the 6th of April next, the whole according to memorandum attached, and that you co-operate with the Secretary of the Navy for that object.
Your obedient Servant
A. Lincoln

[Docket]
March 29. 1861

Order of the President for the preparation of an Expedition by sea

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Cameron, Simon, 1799-1889

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