25 July 1775

Warren, James, 1726-1808

Document signed

Title: [Appointment of Second Lieutenant Enos Briggs]

Document of the Congress of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay appoints Enos Briggs a second lieutenant of a Company of Foot. Signed by James Warren, President of the Congress and Samuel Freeman, Secretary of the Congress. On verso is note written by John Cushing, Jr., Justice of the Peace in Plymouth, that Briggs took the oath required by officers and soldiers of the Massachusetts Army on 2 September 1775.

GLC00994

January 5, 1792

Otis, Samuel A., 1740-1814

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Remsen

Written by Otis as Secretary of the United States Senate to Remsen as principal clerk of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Otis says he will send five copies of the journals of the First Congress and says he will send eight additional copies in the future. Says more may be had if Remsen wants them.

GLC00995

24 December 1776

Ward, Henry, 1732-1797

Document signed

Title: [Rhode Island laws]

Signed by Ward as Rhode Island Secretary of State. Printed set of laws passed by the legislature and Nicholas Cooke, Governor of Rhode Island. Second page lists members of the legislature. Each page lists resolutions and laws and each paragraph has a quick summary in a column next to it. Most of the laws and resolutions deal with military issues of the Revolution. Some examples of laws include: appointment of a council of war, regulation of prices of goods, and the raising of three regiments. Most provide for military details, the commissions of officers, and money payments. Document is bound…

GLC00996

8 May 1779

Greene, William, 1731-1809

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Appointment of John Collins as a Rhode Island delegate to the general congress]

Signed by Greene as governor of Rhode Island, countersigned by Henry Ward as secretary of state. Commissions Collins to represent Rhode Island in the general congress in Philadelphia until ratification of the Articles of Confederation.

GLC00997

circa 1897

Edwards, Oliver, 1835-1904

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Russel Alger

Draft copy, no place or date. Edwards, Brevet Major General U. S. Volunteers, writes to Alger as Secretary of War. Discusses a medal wrongly awarded by the War Department to a private for the capture of General Custis Lee at the Battle of Sailor's [i.e. Saylor's] Creek, Virginia, 6 April 1865. Claims that David White of the 37th Massachusetts Volunteers actually should have received the medal instead of the private in the 121st New York Volunteers. Explains the battle and the circumstances of the capture. Date inferred from Alger's tenure as Secretary of War (1897-1898).

GLC00998

July 9, 1862

Bixby, Horace, fl. 1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Andrew H. Foote

Bixby, seeking a mail contract, asks Foote to recommend him to Postmaster General Montgomery Blair. Notes that Flag Officer Davis has already written such a letter. Adds that in the event of his flotilla being turned over to the navy, and there being a grade of pilot established, he would like to get the position of Pilot in Chief. Andrew Foote autograph note signed at bottom of recto says "Mr. Bixby is a clever, honest man. A. H. Foote U.S. Navy." Written while aboard the Flagship "Benton".

GLC00999

November 1891

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr., 1841-1935

Book signed

Title: Speeches By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Junior.

Inscribed to philanthropist Charles Fairchild and signed with initials "O. W. H." With autograph explanatory notes on Civil War persons mentioned in his speeches, including W. Putnam, W.F. Cabot, James Lowell, General Charles Lowell, Paul Revere (grandson of the Revolutionary figure), E.H.H. Revere, N. Hayward, Rather, H. Abbott, Charles R. Lowell, and W.F. Bartlett. Published by Little, Brown, and Company, Boston. In original brown paper boards.

GLC01001

January 25, 1865

Hill, Daniel H., 1821-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William J. Hardee

Handwritten telegram sent by Confederate General Hill stating that he needs two thousand arms and that nine hundred men arrived from the west but one half of them have deserted.

GLC01002

1861-1865 circa

Pratt, Oliver D., fl. 1863-1864

Header Record

Title: [Collection of Oliver D. Pratt, L company, 1st battalion, 4th regiment, Massachusetts, cavalry] [Decimalized .01-.03.12]

Contains 2 diaries and 12 letters.

GLC01003

1864

Pratt, Oliver D., fl. 1863-1864

Diary

Title: [Diary Oliver D. Pratt]

Autograph manuscript signed. Pratt served in Co. L, 1st Battalion, 4th Massachusetts Cavalry. Approximately 100 pages written in pencil. Military content about war in Virginia. Dated June 10- October 1, 1864.

GLC01003.01

April 4, 1834

Crockett, David "Davy", 1786-1836

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Drurey

Attacks Jackson concerning the Bank of the US and compares him to Julius Caesar. the "despot" Jackson and "little Judas" Van Buren.

GLC00931

February 18, 1793

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Beverley Randolph

Secretary of State Jefferson writes to Randolph, a former Virginia Governor and a commissioner to the Indians of the northwest frontier, to request (with the blessing of President George Washington) that he represent the South at an "assembly of the Northern & Western Indians is to be held at Sanduskey in the approaching spring." Comments that "It will be the greatest collection of Indians (about 3000) which has ever taken place, and from very distant & various parts." Notes that he believes "the public interest intimately concerned in the conducting of this treaty" and…

GLC00936

03 May 1834

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Document signed

Title: [Presidential appointment of James Dunlop, William O'Neale, and Thomas Carbery as inspectors of the District of Columbia penitentiary]

Countersigned by Secretary of State Louis McLane. With two engraved portraits of Andrew Jackson. One bust engraving of Jackson included as collateral.

GLC00937

November 24, 1863

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William H. Seward

On Executive Mansion stationery, re: news of siege of Knoxville. Four days after address at Gettysburg. Basler, 7:30, from copy in Robert Todd Lincoln papers.

GLC00940

03 January 1899

McKinley, William, 1843-1901

Document signed

Title: [Presidential pardon of Bay-bah-Maush who had been convicted of resisting arrest in October 1898 and sentenced to 8 months in Otter Tail County Jail]

Bay-bah-Maush, an Indian, was pardoned by McKinley. No reason for pardon mentioned. Countersigned by Attorney General John W. Griggs.

GLC00943

December 16, 1782

Washington, George, 1732-1799

Letter signed

Title: to William Stephens Smith

In hand of aide-de-camp Benjamin Walker. Written to Smith, the Commissary of Prisoners to the Army. References Smith's letter of 12 December 1782. Thanks him for intelligence it contains. Disagrees with Smith's assessment on Dobbs Ferry. Says it can withstand a small surprise attack and that it was never designed to deal with a large attack. Says the daily intercourse between the inhabitants "of the lower country" with the enemy is alarming and should be broken up. Would like suggestions on how to do that. At this point, after the American victory at Yorktown, Dobbs Ferry was the one…

GLC00949

July 26, 1924

Mitchell, William E., 1879-1936

Typed letter signed

Title: to Lester D. Gardner

Signed as Brigadier General, Air Service, Assistant Chief of Air Service. Advises that he will come to New York as soon as possible but that he has to have his tonsils out. Remarks that the Air Force "has almost ceased to exist ... " Believes that the Air Force needs to separate from the Army and Navy. He thinks that American navy power could easily be destroyed by Japan's air power. In his opinion, protecting the sea is the "only sure method of national defense that we have at the present time ... " Typed on note stationery of the War Department, Air Service, Washington.

GLC00950

23 November 1864

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph endorsement signed

Title: [Endorsement on a letter by Governor Pierpont]

Lincoln endorsement on the address leaf of a letter to Lincoln, from Francis H. Pierpont dated 23 November 1864. In the letter, Pierpont states he would be relieved if Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant had a meeting. Lincoln replies, "My time is of indespensable importance to me now; but I will see Gov. Pierpoint with Gen. Grant now if he calls."

GLC00951

06 May 1875

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

Document signed

Title: [Presidential authority to the Secretary of State to affix the seal to the pardon of C.A. Hayne].

GLC00956

April 20, 1865

Brady, Mathew B., 1823-1896

Photograph

Title: [Robert E. Lee and staff]

Photographed on Lee's back porch in Richmond, shortly after his surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. Depicts General Robert E. Lee with his son, Brigadier General George Washington Custis Lee, and Colonel Walter H. Taylor, Lee's aide-de-camp during the Civil War. Lee is seated, flanked by the other men.

GLC00957

March 27, 1820

Williams, Eleazer, 1787-1858

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jasper Parish

Writes to Parish, an interpreter and Indian agent to the Six Nations, about a proposal to remove the Iroquois tribes of upstate New York to the Old Northwest. Discusses Secretary of War John C. Calhoun's intention to arrange for the move, which includes transferring land now controlled by other groups in the Northwest to the Six Nations. Indicates that the U.S. Government expects Parish's cooperation and will depend on his influence. Williams was a mixed blood Indian who later claimed to be the lost French Dauphin.

GLC00923

April 21, 1861

Bragg, Braxton, 1817-1876

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry J. Hunt

Writes to his old friend and comrade about the turn of events their lives have taken over the last year and expresses is his regret over them being on opposite sides in the war. "How strange are the mutations of life! That we should be in hostile array against each other. A few short months since companions in army, and almost brothers in friendship, it is hard to realize the fact that we are in hostile array against each other." Believes that each of them will have to follow their own conscience but warns that every southerner is "united in the cause." States "we have asked for peace,…

GLC00925.01

April 23, 1861

Hunt, Henry Jackson, 1819-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Braxton Bragg

Replies to Bragg's earlier letter (GLC00925.01) regarding their long time friendship and their now differing loyalties in the war. "How strange it is! We have been united in our views of almost all subjects, public and private. We still have, I trust, a personal regard for each other which will continue, whatever course our sense of duty may dictate, yet in one short year after exchanging at your house assurances of friendship, here we are face to face, with arms in our hands, with every prospect of a bloody collision. How strange!" Sympathizes with the south and his southern friends but…

GLC00925.02

1798

United States. Congress

Broadside

Title: Resolution to amend Article II [Election of President]

Printed by John Fenno. The proposal was never enacted.

GLC00927.01

09 December 1800

Maryland, House of Delegates

Broadside

Title: Resolutions for amending the Constitution on Election of the President

Docketed "N. Pinckney, Secretary;" also docketed on verso. Dated at top December 9; read to Senate December 10 and tabled; read to Senate again on December 19 and assented to.

GLC00927.02