Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

48,363 items

Collection Item

Document signed

October 21, 1861

Price, Sterling, 1809-1867

[Confederate/Union prisoner of war cartel for exchange of prisoners]

Details exchange terms agreed upon by Quin Morton, who signed for Union General John C. Frémont, and Confederate General Sterling Price, who commanded the Missouri State Guard. Includes Confederate prisoners captured at Camp Jackson, Missouri on 10...

GLC00703

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources on the War of 1812 from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

Prof. Taylor’s most recent book, the prizewinning The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies (New York: Knopf, 2010), focuses on the conflict along the US-Canadian border involving...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

Collection Item

Manuscript document signed

31 March 1790

Swan, Caleb, 1758-1809

[Account paid by the United States to the Secretary of War]

Lists transactions for the account of Henry Knox as Secretary of War. Includes names and signatures of several of Knox's staff at the War Office, including John Stagg, signifying receipt of pay. Noted as a copy and written at the War Office.

GLC02437.04568

News

Historian Michael Neiberg on the causes of World War II

In this video from our Self-Paced Course on World War II , US Army War College historian Michael Neiberg explores World War II from its roots in World War I through the Potsdam Conference and Hiroshima, shifting from Pacific to...

Collection Item

1769-1791

New Hampshire Revolutionary War documents, mainly dealing with draft, militia

1. King George III. D: Portsmouth, N.H. 4 November 1769. Legal writ to the sheriff of New Hampshire ordering the seizure of Richard Perkins for appearance in court. 1p. + docket + endorsement.

2. State of New Hampshire. D: Hillsborough, [N.H.]...

GLC03657

News

Civil War Essay Contest Winners at the 2018 Lincoln Prize

The 2018 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize will be awarded this evening to Edward L. Ayers for his new book, The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America , at the Union League Club in New York City. A...

History Now Essay

The First Saddest Day of My Life: A Vietnam War Story

Sharon D. Raynor

World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

What I know about the Vietnam War, I learned as a child from my father, Louis Raynor. At thirteen years old, I discovered an old, tattered, leather-bound diary in my parents’ chest of drawers. When I opened it, I immediately...

Appears in:

43 | Wartime Memoirs and Letters from the American Revolution to Vietnam Fall 2015

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

Spotlight on: Primary Source

A former Confederate officer on slavery and the Civil War, 1907

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

How can a soldier be proud of the country he defends while at the same time opposed to the cause he is fighting for? John S. Mosby, the renowned Confederate partisan leader, dealt with this moral dilemma years after the Civil War...

History Now Essay

The William Shepp Diaries: Combat and Danger in World War I

Michael S. Neiberg

World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

"Disappointments," wrote Private William Shepp, "are common in the army." At the time, Shepp, an aspiring teacher from a small community in West Virginia, was pondering the seemingly unrewarding and unending work that he and the men...

Appears in:

43 | Wartime Memoirs and Letters from the American Revolution to Vietnam Fall 2015

News

Patriotic Verse in a Schoolboy’s Math Book during the Revolutionary War

Between the pages of his math exercise book John Barstow jotted down a patriotic tune called "The Amaricans Challing" on January 2, 1777. Carefully written in a youth’s unsteady hand, the text appears to be a transcript of a popular...