April 1846

Document signed

Title: [List of slaves]

"A Schedule of the negro slaves, the separate property of Obedience Aurelia Runnels, wife of Hiram G. Runnels," lists 29 slaves by name, age, sex and complexion. This may have been produced in anticipation of an imminent duel between Hiram Runnels and Mississippi legislator Volney Howard so that her property would not be affected if her husband should die.

GLC09344

February 5, 1762

Manuscript document

Title: [Legal document transferring a slave woman's ownership]

Legal document from Nausau Island, New York, conveying a "Negro woman called…Candes thirty odd years of age" to Joseph Coles for 65 pounds, from Thomas Smith and John Butler, executors of the estate of Richard Butler.

GLC09345.01

27 December 1747

Manuscript document

Title: [Memorandum]

Memorandum of a resolution of a dispute over an apple orchard between Hezekiah Cock and James and Deborah Cock after the death of their father.

GLC09345.02

2 January 1860

Broadside

Title: Carrier's Address To the Patrons of the Boonsboro Odd Fellow.

"Carrier's Address To the Patrons of the Boonsboro Odd Fellow." Maryland pro-slavery broadside with two columns of text in verse, dealing with the political troubles of the day, including a section ridiculing abolitionist John Brown, who had been executed after his raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

GLC09346

1863

Barr & Young (photographer)

Photograph signed

Title: [Carte-de-visite of Jasper Maltby]

Signed as Brig Genl / U.S.V. CDV, Barr & Young, Vicksburg imprint. After the fall of Vicksburg, on July 4, 1863, Maltby's 45th Illinois earned the honor of hoisting their colors over the city.

GLC09347

27 February 1864

Photograph signed

Title: [Carte-de-visite of John E. Smith]

CDV signed as Brigadier General. Smith commanded a division in the 17th Corps in the western theater. A native of Galena, he was an intimate friend of Ulysses Grant.

GLC09348

1864-1865 ca.

Barr & Young (photographer)

Photograph signed

Title: [Carte-de-visite of Osband Emory]

Signed as Col., 3rd US Col Cavalry. CDV, Barr & Young, Vicksburg imprint. Osband entered service as became colonel of the newly organized 3rd U.S. Colored Cavalry in February, 1864. He was brevetted brigadier general for "gallant and meritorious service" in October, 1864.

GLC09349

1863

Photograph signed

Title: Capt Wilson and men of the "Iron Brigade"

8th Kentucky placing colors on Lookout Mountain after Hooker's victory. R. M. Linn's CDV was a restaged portrayal.

GLC09350

September 1863

Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882

Photograph signed

Title: Incidents of the war. Group--Generals Meade, Humphreys, Hunt, French, Sykes, and Warren.

Famous photograph of the commanders of the Army of the Potomac, taken after the Gettysburg campaign. Taken near Culpeper Court House in Virginia. Included are Generals George G. Meade, A.A. Humphreys, Henry J. Hunt, William French, George Sykes, and Gouverneur K. Warren. Signed on the mount by: "Henry J. Hunt Br Genl. Ch. of Art.," "A.A. Humphreys Maj. Genl. Vols Chf. Staff," and "Geo. G. Meade Maj. Genl. of Vols" Mount has been trimmed, cutting off parts of General Meade's signature and possibly the signatures of the other officers pictured.

GLC09351

September 1883

Riddle, A.J., fl. 1864-1883

Photograph

Title: [Seven photographs taken by A.J. Riddle of Andersonville Prison]

Rare complete series of seven photographs taken by A.J. Riddle, in August 1864, of Andersonville Prison republished with captions in 1883 by Theodore Wiseman, who claims to have secured the "original views in 1865, in an old chest, in old Captain Wirz's house at Andersonville."

GLC09352

1862-1864

Hess, Luther M., fl. 1862-1864

Diary

Title: [Diary of Luther Martin Hess]

Diary of soldier in 93rd Illinois Infantry, Co. G. Took part in Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta campaigns, and Sherman's "March to the Sea." Vivid writing throughout, some daily, some retrospectively. Confronted with the prospect of death during the Vicksburg campaign, Hess writes, "I trust in God that he will not permit me to be slain by the enemy which is now before us, my daily prayer is for Gods power to be with me." Also includes 3 coll. pages.

GLC09353

1862

Keyes, Samuel. fl. 1862-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: [Collection of Samuel Keyes]

11 letters with covers, written by a private in the 16th Massachusetts Regiment. He describes actions in the Army of the Potomac from the troop buildup at Fort Monroe, initiating the Peninsula Campaign, to the Second Battle of Bull Run, where he was badly wounded. Comments on camp life, battles and commanders, and slaves. "The time I miss home the worst," he writes, "is when we are on picket … on a post in a dense wood liable to be shot at any moment, then is the time my mind wanders back to home and friends."

GLC09354

1867-1869

Thompson, Samuel K., fl. 1867-1869

Diary

Title: [Diary of Samuel K. Thompson]

Officer diary of a Civil War veteran who had served as lieutenant in the 54th U.S. Colored Infantry during the war. The three diaries were written during service in one of four "buffalo soldier" regiments created after the war, comprising African-American volunteers and white commissioned officers, to occupy the South during Reconstruction and to man frontier forts on the Plains. Each diary includes additional notes and small newspaper clippings and a copy of his will (written April 1867). They provide great insight into the early history of one of the most celebrated "colored" regiments of…

GLC09357

1863-1870

Barwood, James, fl. 1863-1870

Header Record

Title: [Collection of Barwood James]

Three letters, two of war date, from a British-born American seaman. One written during the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863. He offers fine detail on life aboard Civil War naval vessels, as well as the conflicted attitudes of many northern seamen and soldiers on war aims and race relations. He was skeptical about abolition, as seen in the question he raises with his friend, "Are we wronging 10,000,000 whites to right 4,000,000 Blacks who will never benefit by the righting?"

GLC09358

24 July 1861

Newspaper

Title: [Newspaper]

Offers Confederate view of the First Battle of Bull Run from a newspaper in Sandersville, Georgia. Page 2 is dedicated to reports of "The Great Battle of Manassas: …The Southern troops were again victorious, but the slaughter on both sides was terrific."

GLC09359

12 July 1862

Broadside

Title: [Instructions for guard duty]

Instructions for all enlisted and commissioned officers doing guard duty, issued by Major Wm. H. Haskell, 67th Regt. Ill, Guard Instructor, and Col. Joseph H. Tucker, Post Commander. Camp Douglas was a training camp near Chicago, but was used through most of the war as a POW camp beginning in early 1862 with Grant's capture of Fort Donelson, Tennessee.

GLC09360

4 October 1829

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Coffee

To John Coffee, General in the Tennessee state militia. During first year of his administration, Jackson forecasts his support for removal of the southeastern Indians, which would be made public in his message to Congress in 1830 and would result in the Indian Removal Act of 1830. "It has become necessary for the government of the United States, from the urgent complaints of the Cherokee Indians on the one hand, & the Executive of Georgia on the other, that we should cause to be ascertained the true and ancient line between the Cherokee and Creek Indians … and by a commissioner whose…

GLC09361

1850-1851

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [Journal of the U.S.S. Portsmouth of the African Squadron, U.S. Navy]

Journal of the U.S.S. Portsmouth of the African Squadron, U.S. Navy, organized to protect legitimate American trading activity in western Africa, as well as to suppress "the Slave trade, so far as the Citizens of Flag of the U.S. may be found engaged therein." Includes a letter to the commander of the U.S.S. Dale, sending a copy of the treaty with Britain that authorized the anti-slave trade patrols, and the following order: "Should you meet any of the British Cruisers engaged in the suppression of the Slave trade, you are to communicate freely with them on this service, and whenever it can…

GLC09362

27 February 1863

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

Autograph letter signed

Title: to David D. Porter

To Adm. David D. Porter. Vicksburg campaign letter re frustrated attempt to dig a canal to bypass Confederate forces. "At the present stage of water the submarine pump cannot be used. Capt. Prime therefore has had it put aboard the Champion. Will you be kind enough to let us have the pump and steamer again when the water falls about ten inches from its present level?"

GLC09363

1 June 1782-1789

Lawrence, John, 1719-1802

Printed document signed

Title: [Pay warrant for African American soldier]

Connecticut Line Continental Army, Revolutionary War pay warrant issued to African American soldier Nero Cross, for five pounds, eight shillings, and five pence. Signed by John Lawrence, treasurer of the State, "X" on verso by Cross, and docketed every year to 1789 when interest was paid.

GLC09364

22 June 1862

Jones, William B., fl. 1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Reeser

Jones writes from headquarters, Camp White House. Wishes Reeser well. Reports that he is within twenty miles of Richmond, Virginia and his company is fighting off Confederate guerrilla parties. Describes a skirmish in which the Confederates wounded twenty Union men, burned some hay and grain wagons, and stole mules. Jones's men took sixty Confederate prisoners. Describes confederate soldiers acting as "farmers and younian men untill we get out of thare site… we cant yet to do as we pleas or we wold not hav afarmer in Viriginey we wold kill them as fast as we cold find them… " Mentions…

GLC03523.43.02

23 June 1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

Signed G. J. H. Writes from Camp Alexandria. Thanks the recipient for the "interesting" letter he received. Mentions traveling 600 miles from Washington junction to Harpers Ferry, Virginia to Cumberland, Maryland by [train] cars. Describes the road being rough and Harpers Ferry being the roughest country he ever saw. Writes of washing himself "good" in the "little pool" everyday and believes that it benefits his health. Says he was "quite poor" when he first arrived from the 207th but he is now "fleshy." Worries about becoming sick and dying but believes that there is "sweet rest" in…

GLC03523.43.03

1 October 1863

Glauner, Mathias, fl. 1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Reeser

Discusses arriving in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to look for work. Comments on the low wages in Washington and finding higher wages in Alexandria. Describes beginning work on Saturday repairing a bridge that the rebels tried burning. Reports that the bridge is about two miles from Alexandria on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Inquires about his farm. Comments on his boss telling him he strikes the men too quickly.

GLC03523.43.09

16 September 1864

Engberth, Jacob M., fl. 1863-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to [Syrs] Glowner

Writes that he is in the hospital and that he would like to see him and the boys. Complains about not being able to rest and looking over Washington and seeing all the action. Discusses the presidential race between "old Abraham" [Abraham Lincoln] and George B. McClellan. Comments that there will be peace if McClellan is voted in but "if old Abe Gets in the War is not Goen to stop till the South is Subdued and that wont take more then fore years more and then the Jonies will have to come under and then we will have Peace and no Sepration." Writes that there is plenty to eat, good nurses…

GLC03523.43.13

1861-1864 ca.

Brady, Mathew B., 1823-1896

Photograph

Title: Carte-de-visite of Mary Todd Lincoln

Brady imprint on verso. Half length bust portrait. Wearing a black dress.

GLC09192.01