28 April 1871

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Frank H. Alfriend

Marked "Private" at the top. Davis has not been able to obtain a copy of the biography which Alfriend wrote. The book is available only through subscription. He heard the book was "the best work on the subject which had been produced." He encourages Alfriend to write a history of the war between the states that would do "justice to our Section . . . ." He continues: "The severe ordeal of War and the still harder test of unrestrained power in the hands of the successful combattant [sic], have shed a flood of light on the questions which were discussed in the formation of the plan of Union…

GLC05344.02

3 October 1876

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Frank H. Alfriend

Enclosing a letter from an author name Spruce [?], who wrote a history of the "War between the Northern and Southern States." Davis notes the book is widely circulated in America. [Enclosure is not included in the collection.]

GLC05344.03

1915

Matthews, Essie Collins, fl. 1915

Book

Title: Aunt Phebe, Uncle Tom and others

Title continues, "Character Studies Among the Old Slaves of the South, Fifty Years After." First edition published by Champlin Press. Has photographs of freed slaves after Reconstruction. Contains an advertisement for this book.

GLC05641

January 15, 1866

Semmes, Raphael, 1809-1877

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Andrew Johnson

Letter draft written in prison by the former commander the CSS "Alabama" to the President defending himself against all charges. Discusses the surrender agreement at Greensboro, the definition of treason, the United States Constitution, and his unlawful imprisonment. "The commerce of half a world was at my mercy, and the passions of men North and South, were tossed into a whirl wind by the current events of the most bloody and terrific war the human race had ever seen." Extensive corrections throughout. President Johnson in May 1866 directed that Semmes, while unpardoned, could not hold…

GLC05590

1871

Moses, Franklin Israel, 1838-1906

Pamphlet

Title: Opinion of Chief Justice Moses... Negro Bond Case

Retroactive use of 13th Amendment to cancel sale of slaves.

GLC07627

1872

United States. Congress (42nd, 2nd session : 1871-1872)

Book

Title: Report of the joint select committee to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states.

Published by the Government Printing Office. Explores the Ku Klux Klan, and contains witness reports regarding the number of Klan members, Klan initiation doctrines (including swearing oaths against the Union League), and other Klan activities. Includes detailed information pertaining to Reconstruction and economic conditions in the South.

GLC08872

1866

Broadsheet

Title: [Reconstruction leaflet denouncing the Freedman's Bureau and supporting Andrew Johnson]

One side titled, "ECONOMISE AND PAY YOUR DEBT!: Restore the South and increase your resources." The other side titled, "ONLY SEVEN MILLIONS!" One side denounces the funding Congress passed in the Freedman's Bureau Bill as support for "lazy negros." The other argues the money is needed for the national debt and praises President Johnson's veto of the bill. Echoes Johnson's belief that buying land, building schools, and offering relief to freedmen was unprecedented, would make paupers and vagrants out of freemen already prone to indolence, and was unaffordable. This break between the…

GLC00329

15 April 1865

Medill, Joseph, 1823-1899

Newspaper

Title: Chicago tribune. [Vol. 28, no. 280 (April 15, 1865)]

Reports that president Lincoln has been assassinated and that an attempt was made on Secretary Seward's life. Also reports that Jefferson Davis has issued an edict at Danville. Article about reconstruction in Virginia on second page.

GLC00339.03

1867

United States. Congress

Pamphlet

Title: Acts of Congress, general orders, and instructions for the guidance of boards of Registration, in the third military district, (Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.)

Acts of Congressional reconstruction, centering on the registration of freedmen to vote, beginning with two Acts "to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states," signed in type by Schuyler Colfax and Lafayette Foster; a second Act signed in type by Colfax and B.F. Wade. With supplementary reconstruction acts of Congress passed 19 July 1867. First edition.

GLC00349

1865

Schurz, Carl, 1829-1906

Pamphlet

Title: Report of Carl Schurz.

Paper bound, stab-stitched. Contains "information in relation to the States of the Union lately in rebellion, accompanied by a report of Carl Schurz on the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; also a report of Lieutenant General Grant, on the same subject." Includes other letters and reports on this topic.

GLC00267.391

15 August 1865

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Broadside

Title: Andrew Johnson on Negro Suffrage

[Title continued] His letter to Gov. Sharkey of Mississippi. Reconstruction era printing of Johnson's letter commending the governor's convention to amend the state constitution. In the letter, Johnson also attacks the radical Republicans.

GLC00269

1905

Reynolds, John S. (John Schreiner)., b. 1848

Book

Title: Reconstruction in South Carolina, 1865-1877

Discusses the provisional government and conditions at the end of the Civil War under military occupation and control. Chapters cover the administration of each governor, including James Lawrence Orr, Robert Kingston Scott, Franklin J. Moses, and Daniel Henry Chamberlain, as well as topics such as the Ku Klux Klan, frauds, and dual government. Published by The State Co., Publishers, Columbia, South Carolina.

GLC00267.390

May 14, 1871

Stephens, Alexander Hamilton, 1812-1883

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Richard Haldeman

Discusses an upcoming Pennsylvania Democratic Convention with Haldeman, a United States Representative from Harrisburg. Expresses concern regarding issues which might be addressed at the Convention, stating "Is not the most present and absorbing question ever submitted to the people any where whether ours is a Gov't of Laws or bayonetts ... the Democracy then must array itself against Usurpation -- against Centralism -- against Despotism in any shape and form ..."

GLC01219

May 22, 1866

Cameron, Simon, 1799-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Ulysses Mercur

Cameron responds to a letter from Mercur, a United States Representative from Pennsylvania. He denies recommending W. Clark for political appointment. Referring to the debate regarding reconstruction between Congress and President Andrew Johnson, he states "the contest now, between congress & the President in my mind, is very far above all personal considerations. Congress must be sustained or the rebels, who have been murdering our kindred will control and destroy the Government."

GLC01232

1868

Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872

Book signed

Title: Major General Meade's report on the Ashburn murder

Inscribed by Meade to Spencer Miller on a blue bound-in title page: "Spencer Miller Esq compliments of Gen. Meade." Contains an errata slip opposite the title page. Report on the murder of George W. Ashburn, a prominent white supporter of reconstruction and African-American rights, in Columbus, Georgia. Report outlines the attack on Ashburn by a group of "thirty to fifty" men who were "disguised in masks, and with blackened faces;" based on their style of dress, "there is no doubt that the party...belong to the better class of citizens." The report opens with a statement written to…

GLC01113

circa 1865

Various

Header Record

Title: Two amnesty oaths for Jones with pardon and related papers [Decimalized .01- .05]

P.B Jones took part in a rebellion against the government . He was later pardoned by President Andrew Johnson. All documents have stamped signatures of important persons.

GLC01444

January 18, 1866

Wade, B.F., 1800-1878

Manuscript signed

Title: [Extract from a speech regarding Wade's opposition to President Andrew Johnson's reconstruction policies]

Wade elaborates on his unwavering political stance, especially supporting the patriotism and loyal of black Americans who served gallantly in the Civil War. States: "Now Sir I say to President Johnson, to the Democratic party, and to the people of the United States, that I will never yield the controversy -- until all men in America shall stand upon an equal footing -- equal before the law in every respect ... I was one of those who was an early advocate of bringing those colored people into your army invoking their aid to put down the rebellion ... Would I lend my voice and vote to induce…

GLC01407

May 25, 1866

Longstreet, James, 1821-1904

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John George Walker

Longstreet a former major general in the Confederate Army reflects on the Civil War: "Can't you settle down without war? I am somewhat changed in my ideas about war since I have been forced to change by profession. I think now that war is great folly." Also discusses business, family, and reconstruction politics. Walker was also a former major general in the Confederate Army. Letter written in pencil of stationary of the Southern & Western Life & Accident Insurance Company, of which Longstreet was president.

GLC01404.01

4 May 1865

Steele, Frederick, 1819-1868

Broadside

Title: General Orders no. 3

Signed official at bottom by Lieutenant Joseph Lyman, A.D.C. Orders that Federal troops are not to pillage homes and plantations since the hostilities of the Civil War have ended. Advises newly freed blacks to stay on their plantations with their former masters as the United States Government cannot feed them. "...they are advised to remain on the plantations, and to assist to raise crops, to keep themselves and their children from starving. The fact of their remaining with their former masters, does not deprive them of their freedom." Signed in print by order of Major General F. Steele…

GLC01908

21 November 1866

Comstock, Cyrus Ballou, 1831-1910

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Edward Ortho Cresap Ord

Serving as senior aide-de-camp to General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, Comstock authorizes General Ord to move soldiers from Little Rock to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Referring to reconstruction policies, informs Ord that "It is impossible for the General-in-Chief to give instructions which shall guide you in all extraordinary and exceptional cases; whenever such cases come within the provisions of the Civil Rights Bill, Freedmans Bureau Bill, or other laws, these laws must be your guide." Instructs Ord to return property to pre-war ownership, and to suppress all robbers and bushwhackers in his…

GLC01951

1865

Cannon & Holden (printers)

Book

Title: Executive documents. Convention. Session 1865. Constitution of North-Carolina, with amendments, and ordinances and resolutions passed by the convention session, 1865.

Prints reconstruction constitution of North Carolina. Index includes: Messages of Provisional Governor Holden to the convention, Report of public treasurer to the convention, Report of superintendent of insane asylum, Report of superintendent of the deaf and dumb and blind asylum, Constitution of the state of North Carolina, with amendments, Ordinances and resolutions passed by the convention session, 1865. Printed by Cannon & Holden, Raleigh, North Carolina. Clipping pasted inside front cover about the proposed 14th amendment to the United States Constitution.

GLC01973

1860-1866

Painter, Heber, 1841-1900

Header Record

Title: Collection of Heber Painter, I company, 58th regiment, Pennsylvania, infantry [Decimalized .001-.182]

The collection mostly consists of correspondence from Painter to his aunt and sisters. His letters contain descriptions of camp life, his feelings towards slavery, and anti-Yankee sentiment in Virginia shortly after the war. More specifically he witnesses fighting between the Monitor and Merrimac, the Battle at Batchelder's Creek, the Battle of Fort Harrison/Chaffin's Farm, the fall of Richmond, and the Union occupation of Petersburg. A collection inventory is available.

GLC02016

13 June 1865

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885

Endorsement signed

Title: [Endorsement authorizing U.S. Navy to store munitions at Fort Mifflin]

Document signed by Commodore Henry K. Hoff as Inspector of Ordnance. Written to Commander Henry Alexander Wise as the Chief of Bureau of Ordnance. Marked "No. 272" Says there is enough room for 500 barrels of powder in the magazine at Fort Mifflin. Contains several dockets on the recto of second page. There is a second signature of Hoff as well as a note with the illegible signature R. Julick of the Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance that says General Alexander B. Dyer was asked about storing powder in Fort Mifflin. There is a note dated 14 June and signed by General Dyer saying the…

GLC02027

20 March 1866

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885

Autograph document signed

Title: to Officers Commanding Troops in Southern States

Instructs troops in Southern States to welcome historian Benson J. Lossing. Lossing was visiting the South for the purpose of "seeing different battle fields and [illustrating] them for the benefit of the future reader of the scenes though which this country has passed." States that favors granted to Lossing will be appreciated by Lossing and himself. With original official envelope on which Grant has penned "Introducing Mr. B.F. Lossing Historian".

GLC02306

10 December 1867

Pierce, Franklin, 1804-1869

Letter signed

Title: to Carroll Spence

Writes that he has been sick. Hopes that Spence was somewhat cheered by the fall elections. Laments fanaticism and states, "There is no hope however except through tribulation and suffering, either for the South or for the North. Madness & wickedness of fanaticism have brought us all to the brink of ruin." Written to diplomat Spence is Baltimore, Maryland.

GLC02328