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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.

Watts, Thomas Hill, 1819-1892 to John Cabell Breckinridge

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02469.31 Author/Creator: Watts, Thomas Hill, 1819-1892 Place Written: Montgomery, Alabama Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1 April 1865 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 26.2 cm, Width: 22.1 cm Order a Copy

Watts, Governor of Alabama, discusses salt production in Alabama with John C. Breckinridge, Confederate Secretary of War. Writes, "I desire authority from the War Department permitting the bonded agriculturists to sell to the State salt commissioner... supplies necessary to operate successfully the salines of Clarke County:- or authority to purchase from major J. J. Walker commissary General in this State, such surplus produce, as may be necessary to carry on this enterprise so important to the citizens of Ala..." Mentions B. M. Woolsey, the state salt commissioner. Written on Executive Department of Alabama stationery.

Watts, T. H. (Thomas Hill), 1819-1892
Breckinridge, John C. (John Cabell), 1821-1875
Woolsey, B. M., fl. 1865
Walker, J. J., fl. 1865

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