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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

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1861-1863

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Header Record

Title: Collection of Hillary Shifflet, C company, 1st regiment, Ohio, volunteers [Decimalized .01-.15]

Shifflet served as Private in the Ohio 1st Vols., Company C. The collection includes one letter from his father to Shifflet. By the end of the correspondence, he complains of war weariness, especially of Lincoln's interference with slavery.

GLC02174

December 13, 1861

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Written on patriotic stationery. Shifflet hopes that Johney will be well soon. He got paid today, twenty-three dollars, and "will send you all I can spar." He encourages his wife to persevere until he returns, "if I ever doo." They "expect a fight everday" but "they are in a vary good place now" and he has plenty to eat. Scribbles on verso of second page, delicate, tear along fold in middle.

GLC02174.01

January 1862

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Shifflet cried upon reading her last letter, glad to hear that the family was well. He reports that "our union men have gain[ed] another greate victory on cumberland river" though the men "had to dis mount from thare horses and fight on foot." He explains that if they "git green river and bowlingreen whip out we will git to come home." The Confederates came within a mile of his regiment's pickets and burnt down a railroad depot. The soldiers wanted to go see "the rebbles" but the Captain didn't allow it. He wants to hear from her every week as it does him "a heepe a good" to get her…

GLC02174.02

March 11, 1862

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Written on patriotic stationery. Shifflet was very thankful to receive the box of chicken, pies, and cakes she sent as he "had nothing fit to eat for three weeks" and "it puts me in mind of home." He expects to see the family very soon if all goes as expected though "the prospect is now that we will have a fight." The Confederates attacked their picket lines the night before and his regiment stood picket twice but the "rebbles didn come" and it rained "as hard as I ever seen it." He believes "thar is a heep more danger to stand picket" than to fight on the battlefield. His regiment is…

GLC02174.03

August 19, 1862

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Fanny Shifflet

Shifflet encourages his daughter to "be a good girl and mind your mother" and to "go to school ever chance you git." He asks her to look after the other children, Patsy, Mariah, and Jonney and promises to send money so that Fanny may have new clothes. He heard "not five minets ago that thar is was one hundred and eighty thousand [Confederates] a coming rite on us so we will hav to fall back to nashville in short order." He expects "some hot times soon" but says that he "shant fight much moore my self." Written at Camp Boiling Fork.

GLC02174.04

October 6, 1862

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Written in pencil on patriotic stationery. Shifflet asks his wife to write as soon as she receives the money he has sent as he worries it is lost. He was nearby when George Ennis was shot and "my cap box was shot off of my belt and fore bullets holed in my blouse and my gun barrel [was] shot off." Stunned, Shifflet had to leave the field but he later "got another gun and went back but the rebbles" ran and his regiment "whip[ped] them badly by that morning." He says the Confederates failed to kill him but they "will never come enny nerer without kilen me." His leg was sore for two weeks…

GLC02174.05

December 22, 1862

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Shifflet was unhappy to hear that his wife is "striping tobacco for I donte want you to hav to work for noboddy but your self." He has "but one oald shirt and hit [it] is full of holes and no socks a tall." He asks for descriptions of the children and about how things are going at home. He tried to get home for Christmas but he "will hav to take sowbelly and hav a crackers for my Chrismas dinner." He reports that "our men had a mity hard fight in virginia" and claims that "the war wood bin over if oald lincoln had let the negro question alone." He continues "if he [Lincoln] were "in hell…

GLC02174.06

February 8, 1863

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Shifflet received Fanny's ring and will keep it until he goes home, "if I live to git home." He will go home the next time he is paid "if I can git off enny way a tall." His division is "alooking for another big fight in a few days" and has "bin a skirmishing for four days." His regiment must "go on picket ever other day [and] we hav to go on to morrow." He wants "to come home the worst in the world" and says he thinks "the hold [whole] army is tired."

GLC02174.07

February 13, 1863

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Shifflet went out with a forage team today and they are "as tired as I am of the war." He declares that "this onholy war wood a bin over if oald Lincoln wood a let the negros alone I wish he had forty the blackest negroes in the South tide to him." He describes his shock at how the soldiers steal from local farmers and was especially upset when it happened to a "poor widow woman with fore little children…she beg[ged] them to not take her things for her little children wood starve if tha took her provishion but tha went ahead and took."

GLC02174.08