11 June 1863

Wise, Henry A., 1806-1876

Autograph letter signed

Title: [Report of disposition of forces]

Gen. Wise reports to Major Gen. Arnold Elzey, head of the Department of Richmond, on his troop placements north and east of Richmond. "The great consideration is forage. There are 2000 tons at least in this neighborhood calling for scythe's & reaping machines."

GLC09251

28 August 1862

Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: to C.C. Memminger

Asking Confederate Secretary of the Treasury C. C. Memminger to find an appointment for "Mr. Caldwell of Fredericksburg…a respectable citizen," who has been discharged from the Army after being injured. Endorsed by R.M.T. Hunter and L. C. De Jarrette, both recommending appointment. Maury was America's foremost oceanographer and was commissioned into the Confederate States Navy as Chief of Harbor Defenses.

GLC09252

26 December 1870

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Charles Stoess

To his brother-in-law Charles Stoess, Bavarian Consul in Liverpool. From Memphis, relating family and business news: "The fall has been the most favorable for gathering the cotton crop ever seen by 'the oldest inhabitant'. The low price has acted unfavorably on the laborers, though there will be nevertheless it is thought more cotton sent to market than there was last year."

GLC09253

February 21, 1850

Longstreet, James, 1821-1904

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George W. Crawford

To Secretary of War George W. Crawford, asking assistance in obtaining promotion. "I do not hesitate to say that I can furnish ample proof, from every Officer under whom I have served, of as much service as any Officer of my grade could have rendered. I shared a full part in every action (Save one) of the late war against Mexico. Before, and since the war I have constantly served on the Frontier. It is true that I have been breveted twice for services during the late war. But brevets have been given in such promiscuous profusion, that this is an empty requital, which confers neither fame nor…

GLC09254

circa 1860s

Lee, Sydney Smith, 1802-1869

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Charles Carter Lee

To his brother, Charles Carter Lee, giving news of his son Fitzhugh Lee's serious wound at the Third Battle of Winchester on 9/19/1864. "My dear Fitz was slightly wounded in the fight near 'Winchester,' Fitz has been sick for 11 days and was not well when he went into the fight… had two horses shot under him.... His poor Nelly Gray was wounded so bad he had to abandon her-… He had her in the first Manassas fight.… But alas-she has gone.… My dear boy wrote to me after he was wounded and said he had done his best....the ball that struck him went through a thigh and through the saddle and killed…

GLC09255

6 June 1860

Lee, Robert E., 1807-1870

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Anna Fitzhugh

To cousin Anna Fitzhugh, an intimate letter written on the eve of the Civil War, reporting on family news and revealing his personal anxieties and troubles: "A divided heart I have too long had, & a divided life too long led. That may be one cause of the small progress I have made on either hand, my professional & civil career. Success is not always attained by a single undivided effort. It rarely follows a halting vacillating course. My military duties require me here, whereas my affections & urgent domestic claims call me away. And thus I live & am unable to advance either.…

GLC09256

30 June 1848

Lee, Robert E., 1807-1870

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sidney Smith Lee

Having returned from service in the Mexican War just a day before, Lee writes to his brother Sidney Smith Lee of his homecoming and other family news. "Here I am once again, my dear Smith, perfectly surrounded by this Mama & her precious children, who seem to devote themselves to staring at the furrows in my face and the white hairs in my head. It is not surprising that I am hardly recognizable to the young eyes around me perfectly unknown to the youngest. But some of the older ones gaze with astonishment & wonder & seem at a loss to reconcile what they see , to what was pictured…

GLC09257

circa 1870

Lee, Fitzhugh, 1835-1905

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Ellen Bernard

An exuberant letter to Ellen Bernard "Nellie" Fowle of Alexandria, VA, whom he married on April 19, 1871. "God bless you Miss Nellie I had no idea you were such a woman as you are. I feel as if I really know you for the first time." With small card.

GLC09258

12 October 1897

Cleveland, Grover, 1837-1908

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Fitzhugh Lee

To Fitzhugh Lee as U.S. Consul General to Havana, asking Lee to aid a New York doctor in obtaining legal proof of his brother's death in Cuba.

GLC09259

7 October 1864

Clark, John B., fl. 1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sterling Price

Former Confederate congressman and brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard writes to Major Gen. Sterling Price, giving Northern Press reports of Price's Missouri Expedition: "it appears that you have penetrated within twenty miles of St. Louis with your forces, and that you are taking one place after another in rapid succession, filling our enemies with consternation & alarm.... I pray you may have complete success and that our people may raise and shake off the shackles that have so long bound them; may the Almighty preserve you and your noble army, and give you that success our…

GLC09260

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