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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.

Leggett, Mortimer Dormer, 1821-1896 to John Alexander Logan

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03976 Author/Creator: Leggett, Mortimer Dormer, 1821-1896 Place Written: La Grange, Tennessee Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 4 July 1862 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; Height: 25 cm, Width: 19.9 cm Order a Copy

Marked private at the top of page one. Written in pencil. Colonel Leggett writes, "For Heavens sake get us out of this, if you can. Gen Hurlbut is doing all in his power to get us permanintly attached to his command- & I would sooner my regiment would fall into the hands of the devil, for the devil has brains at least. As for me, he can't have me, for I'll quit the service 'in disgust' first... Half of the time he is a poor, drunken, brazen faced fool, & the other half, as timid as an unfledged gosling afraid of his own shadow." Claims that few officers from the 30th Illinois or 78th Ohio regiment would submit to a transfer under Hurlbut.

Leggett, Mortimer Dormer, 1821-1896
Logan, John Alexander, 1826-1886
Hurlbut, Stephen Augustus, 1815-1882

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