25 April 1861

Boham, Milledge L., 1813-1890

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Francis W. Pickens

To SC Gov. F.W. Pickens, re the warm welcome of SC troops in Richmond and the occupation of Annapolis by "20,000 black Republican troops." Brig. Gen. Bonham says Virginia "is rather poorly provided for the great fight which is before her. Lee has just taken command and may bring things right."

GLC09308

January 11, 1865

Broadside

Title: [Resolutions]

The Confederate House of Representatives, resolving that "the Confederate States are prosecuting the war in which they are engaged for the purpose of establishing their independence as a separate power, and that in so doing they are exercising the natural and inalienable right claimed by them in the revolution of '76…with a sincere conviction of the justice of our cause, and an humble reliance upon the Supreme Ruler of Nations."

GLC09310

3 January 1867

Ramsey, Alexander, 1815-1903

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Dr. J.J. Wardlaw

Former Alabama slave owner comments on Reconstruction: "There will be in this country great distress and destitution; hundreds of men who were in good circumstances before the war are completely ruined. Suing and being sued is the order of the day.…And what the Radicals will do, can only be judged of by their former acts, and propositions now in their Congress. I believe they intend to give us a Territorial government, and place the negro over us in point of privilege. I hope however the good Lord may intervene and thwart their designs."

GLC09311

19 March 1879

Porter, Fitz-John, 1822-1901

Pamphlet signed

Title: Report of the Board of Officers in the Case of Fitz-John Porter...

"Report of the Board of Officers in the Case of Fitz-John Porter, Late Major-General of Volunteers" published by the Army and Navy Gazette. Annuls Porter's 1863 court-martial and restores his position of major general. Includes transcriptions of communications between Porter and General Pope before the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, after which Porter was arrested for actions that Pope said led to the Union defeat.

GLC09312

1862-1864

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891

Manuscript document

Title: [Union orderly book]

Union orderly book primarily from the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, with orders from various army and regimental officers, including General Sherman: "Special Orders No. 62" [issued by Sherman, near September 3, 1864]: "The Genl. Commanding announces with great pleasure, that our troops under Maj. Genl. Slocum occupied Atlanta yesterday at 11 oclock AM. The enemy having evacuated the night before, destroying vast magazines and stores, and blowing up along their route eighty car loads of ammunition which accounts for sounds heard by us on the night of the 1st inst. Your task has been well done."

GLC09313

July 1862

Broadside

Title: News by Telegraph

Includes the New York Herald's reports of McClellan's battles in the Peninsular Campaign; summarizes the news recently received from Europe; reports on "The Colored Race in Illinois" concerning the denial of "negroes" the right to vote in Illinois.

GLC09314

1862-1865

Boston, John W., fl. 1862-1865

Header Record

Title: [Collection of Union private John W. Boston] [Decimalized .01- .52]

52 articulate letters of Union Pvt. John W. Boston, Company A, 81st Ohio Volunteers, between October 1862 and July 1865. Describes fighting in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign at Corinth and Resaca; also describes the March to the Sea. "[Camp Limy 10/13/62] I would love to come home and see you all before I go to Dixie for when we leave we will soon be in an engagement and in danger but we have to stand our chances with the rest but I go not for the money but for our Government and if I die I die a soldier and not a coward we are to be armed and equipped for the 81 Regiment and I expect to be…

GLC09315

21 September 1862

Fales, Charles L., fl. 1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Adelaide Fales

Captured after a Union bayonet charge at Second Bull Run: "...when we charged bayonets and rushed with a yell on to the railroad. The rebels poured the shot with us fast but we drove them away and held the railroad....They shot some men after they surrendered. I expected to get killed one fellow rushed up to me with his bayonet and asked me if I wanted to die, I told him I did not care. He with several others marched me off."

GLC09316

1862-1865

Tinker, S.F., fl. 1862-1865

Diary

Title: [3 war-date diaries]

Union engineer or bridge-builder's three war-date diaries, describing work done from Harper's Ferry to the Atlanta Campaign: "Had the pleasure of seeing Uncle Abe and riding on a special train with him down Sandy Hook to Harpers Ferry. McClellan was here also, Burnside and quite a number of other officers.…I was in the little fort which John Brown held in his possession for 48 hours against the combined forces of Virginia and it is only a little brick building with iron doors, they are now selling hides in it."

GLC09317

21 November 1863

Thomas, Lorenzo, 1804-1875

Document signed

Title: to R.L. Wilson

As Brig. General and Adj. General, to R. L. Wilson: "...You are hereby informed that the President of the United States has appointed you First Lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment Louisiana Volunteers of African Descent."

GLC09318

March 7, 1863

Clark, Alex M., fl. 1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sara McMillan

Captain in the 8th Regiment Iowa Infantry, earlier taken prisoner at Shiloh and later paroled: "My vengeful feelings are the hardest to keep down, when thinking of those in the free North, who would prefer giving up to that Tyrant, Jeff. Davis who is trying to establish a government the corner stone of which is oppression....We…are fighting…for the principles that are, or ought to be, dearer than life, Liberty, Freedom from the oppression of the basest of tyrants."

GLC09319

1864-1865

Hilliard, Thomas B., fl. 1864-1865

Diary

Title: [Diary of private in 50th Penn. Infantry]

Diary of private in 50th Pennsylvania Infantry, with entries from Sept. 1864 through June 1865, encompassing the close of the war: "Today the election took place for President of the United States everything moved off quietly majority for Lincoln in the 50th Regiment.... news of Sheridan's victory on the left rebels still retreating... [April 1865] a great talk of peace...2000 prisoners taken to City Point...considerable talk about the death of Lincoln."

GLC09320

1864

Richardson, W., fl. 1800-1810

Map

Title: [Battle map]

Hand-drawn battle map of the movements of the 23rd Army Corps during the siege of Atlanta, with positions of the Union and Confederate forces in Resaca, Marietta, and Atlanta.

GLC09321

1864

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Book

Title: [Campaign biography]

Scarce campaign biography, featuring bold image of Lincoln on front cover and vice presidential candidate Andrew Johnson on back cover.

GLC09322

9 October 1864

Hotchkin, W.S., fl. 1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: To Parenle

Soldier in the 1st New York Engineers: "One of our company was shot while at work on the parapet of the fort. He was shot through the heart by a Rebel Sharpshooter and instantly killed.… [Colonel] blamed the sergeant in command of the squad for letting him get in so exposed a situation."

GLC09323

circa 1860-1865

McSherry, Henry F., fl. 1837

Header Record

Title: [Collection of Henry F. McSherry] [Decimalized .01- .40]

37 letters and documents pertaining to Assistant Surgeon of Martinsburg, [West] Virginia, who served in the U.S. Navy throughout the war. Letters from his family contain good wartime content, from Union supporters in the South. Includes July 1860 Navy Department commission issued to McSherry; a poem dedicated to two local Confederate soldier brothers who "fell in the battle of Manassas… standing side by side. At the same instant, both, mortally wounded"; a telegram from McSherry's father dated May 17, 1861, which simply states "Do not resign." Letter of 5/1/1865 has observations of Lee and…

GLC09324

15 July 1865

Van Wyck, C.H., fl. 1865

Broadside

Title: General Orders No, 3

Brig. Gen. commanding Military District of Western South Carolina during the Southern Occupation period, orders equal rights for the newly freed black population. Recounts incidents of abuse of freedmen and threatens punishment if such acts continue: "Like offences will be severely punished some very wicked men by disregarding the rights of the freedmen render necessary the presence of military power to prevent that which they ought not do however obnoxious it may be, every man is free and must be treated as such you cannot expect the sudden change in your system of labor to work smoothly."

GLC09325

29 May 1865

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Printed document

Title: [Amnesty Proclamation]

Circular issued by the Department of State, signed in type by William H. Seward as Secretary of State: "A copy of the President's Amnesty Proclamation of this date is herewith appended. By a clause in the instrument, the Secretary of State is directed to establish rules and regulations for administering and recording the amnesty oath, so as to insure its benefits to the people and guard the Government against fraud,"

GLC09326.01

17 June 1865

Ordway, Albert, fl. 1865

Document

Title: [Transmittal notice]

Transmittal letter from Ordway, Lt. Col. 24th Mass., serving as Provost Marshal of the Department of Virginia, pertaining to the President's amesty proclamation.

GLC09326.02

1866-1868

Woodward, York A., fl. 1866-1868

Header Record

Title: [Collection of York Woodward] [Decimalized .01- .18]

15 letters written by a Freedman's Bureau Superintendent, from January 1866 to February 1868. Many are from Abingdon, VA, and reveal the personal responses and official actions of a Pennsylvania veteran who served throughout the Occupied South as a government agent. "Our court met and adjourned till 2 o'clock we disposed of 4 cases I am yet Monarch of all I survey. The folks pass me by on the other side of the way, but if they have any trouble. I am the one they apply to the farmers have been plowing nearly all the week; it looks strange to see people at their farms work in the month of Jan…

GLC09327

January 13, 1812

Printed document

Title: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Thirteenth American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery...

"Minutes of the Proceedings of the Thirteenth American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and Improving the Condition of the African Race Assembled at Philadelphia..." Reports on schools for African-Americans, kidnapping, arrests of fugitive slaves, the African slave trade and the detention of ships engaged in the trade, and prints correspondence with London's African Institution. Representatives of the Manumission Society of New-York, the Abolition Societies of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey attended the meeting, chaired by Thomas Pym Cope, prominent Philadelphia…

GLC09328

4 November 1874

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to C.H. Howard

To C. H. Howard, an editor/publisher in Chicago, acknowledging receipt of six copies of a "little Letter" he had written. "I very rarely write anything for a newspaper. Almost all my articles appear first in Circulars." He cannot promise to write any further articles; Smith died less than two months later.

GLC09329.01

2 May 1829

Clay, Henry, 1777-1852

Document signed

Title: [Decree]

Decree issued by the Kentucky Circuit Court at Fayette, awarding payment to Clay, who held the mortgage on a property including slaves, which must be sold to pay him. Clay adds an addendum specifying that a young girl not listed on the mortgage be treated as if she had been: "…it being desirable that the mother should not be separated from the child, we do hereby agree that the said child shall be sold with the mother."

GLC09331

1 December 1859

Broadside

Title: [Abolitionist broadside]

Abolitionist broadside endorsed "Distributed in the streets of Boston Thursday evening Dec.1, 1859, the day before the execution of John Brown." Bold text reads: "Let their epitaphs remain unwritten until the not distant day when no slave shall clank his chains in the shades of Monticello or by the graves of Mount Vernon." Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859.

GLC09332

February 12, 1863

Logan, John Alexander, 1826-1886

Printed letter

Title: To My Fellow Soldiers (Circular Letter)

Gen. "Black Jack" Logan encourages his Union troops, writing from "Headquarters, 3rd Division, 17th Army Corps" in Memphis, TN: "The day is not far distant, when traitors and cowards North and South, will cower before the indignation of an outraged people. March Bravely Forward! Nerve your strong arms to the task of overthrowing every obstacle in the pathway of victory until with shouts of triumph the last gun is fired that proclaims us a United People under the old Flag and one Government. Patriot soldiers!"

GLC09333