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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.

Randolph, George Wythe, 1818-1867 to Daniel S. Donelson

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02217 Author/Creator: Randolph, George Wythe, 1818-1867 Place Written: Richmond, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 12 November 1863 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 24 cm, Width: 19.9 cm Order a Copy

General Randolph, former Confederate Secretary of War, writes: "If the War Department recognized the disbanding of your regiment you were thereby put out of commission and your subsequent assignment to duty was invalid. But if the Regt is still kept on the books of the Adjutant General as an existing regiment I presume that your commission as 1st Lt and Adjutant is yet in force... I think it hardly worth your while to incur the trouble and expense of a visit to Richmond if your Representative in Congress will attend to your application..." A pencil note, added at a later date, suggests that Donelson is the son of former political figure Andrew Jackson Donelson, and is related to Randolph by marriage.

Randolph, George Wythe, 1818-1867
Donelson, Daniel S., 1842-1864
Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 1799-1871

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