Ulysses S. Grant correspondence

This collection contains correspondence sent by Ulysses S. Grant, primarily from City Point, Virginia, to Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton, Henry W. Halleck, George Gordon Meade, Benjamin F. Butler, Philip Henry Sheridan, William T. Sherman, and others during Civil War operations from May 1864 to April 1865. The correspondence is in the form of signed letters, most in Grant's hand and on army letterhead; the letters were then resent as telegrams, many after being ciphered.

Correspondence primarily pertains to Union Army campaigns in Virginia from August 1864 to February 1865. Items sent to Philip Henry Sheridan also discuss campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley and the Confederate battalion of John S. Mosby; items sent to William T. Sherman discuss the capture of Atlanta and Sherman's campaign through Georgia and into South Carolina; several other items mention campaigns in the deep south and western edges of the war.

The letters detail Union troop movements, orders and plans; intelligence on Confederate Army and government officials' movements and plans, including reports from deserters and Confederate newspapers; Union supplies, stores, and artillery; the capture of prisoners-of-war and enemy artillery; POW exchanges; soldier enlistments; the state of roads and railroads, especially in Virginia; Union general and officer appointments and dismissals; the recruitment of Black soldiers; and Grant's movements and whereabouts.

Correspondence are autograph letters signed and sent by Grant from City Point, Virginia, unless otherwise noted. Most messages are marked "cipher" (see individual Scope & Contents notes for exceptions). The times noted in the date were in Grant's hand in some cases; in others, they appeared to have been added later and may have indicated the time the telegram was sent. Many of the items addressed to Major General Philip Sheridan in Virginia were actually locations in the newly created state of West Virginia.