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.

Burnside, Ambrose Everett (1824-1881) to Henry Wise

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02455.01 Author/Creator: Burnside, Ambrose Everett (1824-1881) Place Written: Roanoke Island, North Carolina Type: Letter signed Date: 12 February 1862 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 30.5 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Union Brigadier General Burnside, commanding Department of North Carolina, writes to Confederate Brigadier General Wise, commanding Chowan District, Department of Norfolk. Agrees to a written request from Wise of the day before that the bodies and effects of fallen Confederates from the Battle of Roanoke Island (7-8 February 1862) be sent to him. In reference to another request Wise made about prisoner exchanges, Burnside asks that Wise forward an enclosed proposition (not present) to his superior, Major General Benjamin Huger. Writes, "The condition expressed in this proposition that those prisoners longest in confinement shall be released first, is Simply on the ground of humanity."

Burnside, Ambrose Everett, 1824-1881
Wise, Henry Alexander, 1806-1876

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