24 May 1861

Garnett, Robert S., fl. 1861

Autograph letter signed

Title: Special Orders No. 110

"Special Orders No. 110," ordering Col. Moore's regiment of Virginia Volunteers to Manassas Junction, immediately prior to the First Battle of Bull Run. Issued by order of Maj. Gen. Lee, signed by Garnett, the first general officer killed in the Civil War.

GLC09261

27 July 1861

Reagan, John H. (John Henninger), 1818-1905

Autograph letter signed

Title: [Appointment]

Appointment of a postmaster in Virginia, signed as Confederate Postmaster General. With 5-cent Confederate postage stamp.

GLC09262

14 July 1861

Donnellan, George, fl. 1861

Autograph letter signed

Title: [Confederate spy letter]

Important Confederate spy, one week before the Battle of Bull Run: "Should any sealed dispatch be handed into your possession without any superscription, and as coming from me, you will please address the same (after satisfying yourself of the contents) to Genl G.T.B. Manassa Junction, and have it carried through by the shortest & quickest time." Donnellan carried information between Rose Greenhow, Thomas Jordan, and Gen. Beauregard on troop movements that Jefferson Davis later credited as the reason for the Confederate victory at First Bull Run.

GLC09263

28 April 1865

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

Autograph endorsement signed

Title: to General Howard

Asking General Howard to protect the wife of Confederate General Robert Ransom: "I take great pleasure in committing this lady and her family to the care & protection of Gen. Howard, and beg he will let one of his staff officers see the family and assure Mrs. Ransom of the deep interest we feel in her safety and happiness." Written on verso of Minnie Hunt Ransom's ALS, 4-24-1865, to Sherman, asking for protection in occupied North Carolina.

GLC09264

20 May 1861

Lyon, Nathaniel, 1818-1861

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Colonel D. Hassendeubel

To Colonel D. Hassendeubel of the 3rd Missouri Volunteers: "In respect to your report upon Arms and the movements of the secessionists, in your vicinity and at Manchester, it is important that you keep us fully advised as possible." Written ten days after the "St. Louis Massacre," when troops under Lyon's command opened fire on a crowd of St. Louis citizens, injuring 90 and killing 28. Lyon, credited with stopping the Missouri secessionist movement, was the first Union general killed in the Civil War, in August 1861 at the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

GLC09265

20 June 1864

Schofield, John McAllister, 1831-1906

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jacob D. Cox

During the Atlanta Campaign: "Genl Sherman is here and has given me his plans. We must force the passage of Noyes Creek today. Four o'clock is the hour set for you to begin, and you will be supported by a general demonstration along the whole line." To Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox.

GLC09266

22 September 1862

Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: Professor Rogers

Re Antietam: "We had a terrible battle last week. May we soon see the last of them and of the war. You can hardly imagine the horror of that battle field the following day." After Antietam, Shaw commanded the all-black 54th Mass. Volunteer Infantry until his death in battle. With envelope, addressed to Professor Rogers.

GLC09267

31 October 1887

Averell, William W., 1832-1900

Autograph letter signed

Title: [Recount of Battle of Bull Run]

Union general vividly recounts his first battle, at Bull Run in 1861: "My feeling on entering the battle was, as I saw the enemy hastening to their positions, that there was a great and useless Crime about to be Committed; - the second as I can remember the whizzing and hurtling of the first solid shot from the enemy through the trees and tearing along the ground was of the fierce and terrible force of a cannon ball… and to skip to the last uncontrollable indignation and mortification at the failure of our army to win the battle as with the rear we withdrew from the field. I trust you will…

GLC09268

28 August 1863

Ransom, Thomas Edwin Greenfield, 1834-1864

Letter signed

Title: to James B. McPherson

To Gen. James B. McPherson, reporting on disloyalty of W.W. Shaw, who plans to ship cotton, and attacks Col. B. G. Farrar of the 30th Missouri: "...his men and officers can not be trusted in the country alone. They pillage and plunder and destroy beyond any men I have ever commanded and will not follow or obey my orders in this respect.... the officers...seem to have a very poor appreciation of the rights of citizens- non combatants-and very little respect for private property." Ransom died in October 1864 from wounds suffered at the Battle of Sabine Station the previous April.

GLC09269

26 February 1863

Berdan, Hiram, fl. 1823-1893

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Horatio Seymour

Colonel of the first regiment of Union marksmen, "Berdan's Sharpshooters," to NY Governor Horatio Seymour, supporting requests for promotion for several of his men. [Berdan personally demonstrated his marksmanship to President Lincoln when requesting particular rifles for his regiment.]

GLC09270

1865

Whitley, Albert, fl. 1865

Header Record

Title: [Collection of 5 letters written during Sherman's March to the Sea] [Decimalized .01- .05]

Five letters written during Sherman's March to the Sea and the subsequent pursuit of the Confederates up into North Carolina until the end of the war. Including: 1-1-1865, from Savannah, Georgia: "We entered this City Dec. 21st the rebels having evacuated it the night before, they left all of their siege guns...[and] crossed over into South Carolina. Our men have taken out the Torpedoes in the River & now our steamers & transports can run in.... General Sherman has reviewed his entire army in Savannah, it was a grand & imposing scene & one long to be remembered by all present…

GLC09271

1863

Nichols, Ambrose S., fl. 1863

Diary

Title: Diary belonging to a Civil War soldier

A war-weary soldier's diary provides contemporary eyewitness accounts of the entire Gettysburg Campaign, including the march from Maryland up into Pennsylvania, the battles at Brandy Station and Gettysburg, and the later push in pursuit of the Confederates. Nichols served in the 10th New York Cavalry. His entries are dated January 1-6 and April 12 - November 27, 1863, describing cavalry battles and engagements, the execution of deserters, and the horrors of battlefields during that critical war year. From Saturday, July 4, at Gettysburg: "They kept up the fite last nite till 10 o'clock and…

GLC09272

August 1864-June 1865

Hammond, Horace J., fl. 1862-1865

Header Record

Title: [Collection of 50 letters of a soldier in the 189th regiment NY volunteers] [decimalized]

This collection consists of fifty letters from Horace J Hammond to his wife, Eleanor. Hammond enlisted on August 17, 1864 at Avoca, NY as a Private. He served largely at City Point, Virginia, the headquarters for General Ulysses S. Grant. While at City Point, he was injured when a fellow soldier's rifle discharged and the bullet became lodged in his leg. Doctors removed the bullet and Hammond recovered without having his leg amputated. Hammond was discharged on May 30, 1865. With Hammond's discharge.

GLC09273

1 September 1863

Mallory, Stephen R., 1813-1873

Letter signed

Title: to C.C. Memminger

As Confederate Secretary of the Navy, to C. C. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury, cancelling a requisition for nearly three million dollars "Captain Samuel Barron C. S. Navy, having returned to the treasury department the drafts drawn in his favor… I have the honor to request that the said requisition be cancelled on books of the Treasury Department." This may relate to the money that was to have paid for two ironclad turret ships secretly being built in England for the Confederacy, supervised by Capt. Barron. Federal diplomacy resulted in their seizure by the British government in…

GLC09274

1856-1859

Jackson, George E.G., 1856-1859

Header Record

Title: [2 ship's logs]

The HMS Antelope, on anti-slavery duty off the West African coast. Two ship's logs,"From 3rd Dec 1856 till 20th March 1859, Commanded by Lieutenant John Wm. Pike, Kept by Geo. E. G. Jackson, Master's Asst." Text and hand-drawn pencil sketches, diagrams of the ships, and watercolor representations of islands visited in enforcing the British prohibition against slavery. "29th day of June 1857… Anchored off Whyda … 3:45 Stopped & came too…a schooner - under American colors - sent on board to examine Schooner - Found her the late "Montague" of New Orleans but now claiming no nationalty fully…

GLC09275

26 April 1865

Laurence, A.B., fl. 1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: [Certification of authenticity of flag fragment]

Lt. Col. and Quartermaster of the U. S. Army 24th Corps certifies "That the accompanying is a fragment of the Rebel Flag that floated over the Capitol of the Confederacy in this city, and was taken by the troops of this command. The flag- made it is said of 'English Neutrality Bunting' - has been this day cut up and distributed as one of the most significant trophies of this terrible war; and the rope to which the flag was attached is left for the special service of Jeff Davis and all such traitors."

GLC09276.01

[3 April 1865]

Object

Title: [three fragment of Confederate flag]

Three attached fragments of the last Confederate flag to fly over the Richmond Capitol.

GLC09276.02

12 October 1862

Morgan, John Hunt, 1825-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Pegram

To Col. John Pegram, Chief of Staff, re orders for his cavalry near Lexington, Kentucky. "I sent out scouts to Shakertown & also Col. Duke's Regt. with orders to hold the enemy in check in case they were advancing until I could go to his assistance with the remainder of my command…. I Shall move with the remainder of my force to Shakertown immediately where I will remain...according to Gen. Bragg's orders. I am very much confused by the various conflicting orders which I have read, & have necessarily been kept so constantly moving that I have not been able to procure subsistence for…

GLC09278

15 January 1856

Fenno, Edward, fl. 1856

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Josiah Drummond

About an upcoming lecture tour by Frederick Douglass in Maine: "I have guaranteed him fifty dollars for this city-twenty five dollars in each of the other towns-I shall entertain him while here." To Josiah Drummond.

GLC09279

26 August 1861

Clark, Edward, fl. 1877

Broadside

Title: Proclamation to the People of Texas

Recruitment Broadside by Governor of Texas: "You require no appeal to animate your patriotism.... Then should every man be up and doing. If you want a speedy peace, you must be prepared to conquer it."

GLC09280

12 October 1846

Dupont, Samuel F., 1803-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Stevens

Mexican War naval and land operations while in command of the Cyane: "there is no hope whatever of a peace & we will have to conquer the whole country or form lines of occupation of what we already have taken."

GLC09281

15 July 1847

Plummer, Joseph B., fl. 1847-1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mr. Clark

Conditions in Vera Cruz in the Mexican War: "the Guerillas are becoming more and more bold.… They have even sent word to the Col. that they are going to pay him a visit and that they shall hang him.... There is little prospect of peace. Santa Anna is dictator."

GLC09282

8 April 1848

Wheeler, Frank, fl. 1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his mother

Lt. of 2nd Illinois Volunteers, re dining with former Mexican president General Santa Anna in Puebla: "His opinion of the war is this, he said he thought that the Mexican people would send for him again and as to peace there would be none."

GLC09283

2 May 1846

Hunter, Nathaniel Wyche, fl. 1846

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sarah R. Golding

Capt. of 2nd U.S. Dragoons, Galveston, Texas writes about the opening of the Mexican War: "There will be ten thousand troops on the Rio Grande in two weeks....I shall go directly to Point Isabel and if not in the hands of the enemy shall land and join my company. We can keep to sea until our fuel is exhausted if we cannot get ashore."

GLC09284

December 1860

Jones, William E., 1824-1864

Autograph letter

Title: to newspaper editor

Letter to newspaper editor, intended for publication, calling to prepare for coming Civil War: "With the old and the young, rifle practice should be the order of the day for we may have to meet the enemy abroad and at home.…the devil in the shape of an abolitionist might well be defied."

GLC09285