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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.

Tillotson, George W., 1830-1918 To his wife

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04558.076 Author/Creator: Tillotson, George W., 1830-1918 Place Written: Suffolk, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 15 March 1863 Pagination: 4 p. : Height: 19.5 cm, Width: 12.5 cm Order a Copy

Written in pencil. Continued on March 16. Describes his accommodations: "The house consists of four pieces of tents, two of which are buttoned together, for the sides, with little rope loops, at the corners, to pin them down to the ground. ... [describes pole-setting and tent raising] ...there is a little less than four feet high from the ground to the peak, and five feet square, on the ground, and as I sit in the center of it, on my knapsack with my portfolio across my lap for a writing table, and my bayonet stuck point downwards in the ground, for a candlestick, I can just sit up straight. Dont you wish you had as commodious a Mansion?" Mentions going to a regular church, describes Suffolk, guerrillas, rumor that they were sent there by mistake or out of spite for their commanding general.

Tillotson, George W., 1830-1918

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