Montgomery Slaughter papers, (bulk 1862-1863)

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  William T. Sherman papers, (bulk 1862-1865)

  Manuscripts

  Collection of Sherman's military, political, and personal correspondence, chiefly covering the Civil War. Included is a group of Sherman's letters to David Dixon Porter and individual letters and communications addressed to Ulysses S. Grant, George H. Thomas, Joseph Dana Webster, and others, concerning the Yazoo Expedition, March to the Sea and the occupation of Savannah. Also included are a few orders, including Sherman's draft of Farewell Address to the Armies of Tennessee and Georgia, and some post-war correspondence, including individual letters to Andrew Jackson, Horatio King, John Sherman, and others.

  mssShermanwt

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  1862-1863 April

  Manuscripts

  Letters from Daniel Horn to his wife Geles posted in various places in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia. Also, letters of Horn's comrades and the regimental chaplain informing Geles Horn of the death of her husband. The letters discuss camp life, payments, Horn's concern over his family back in Ohio, war news, the Union commanders, including Ulysses S. Grant, and his fellow Confederate soldiers. He also writes about several military operations including Fort Donelson, the siege of Vicksburg, Morgan's Ohio raid, and operations near Atlanta and Marietta, Georgia.

  mssHM 49539-49610

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  1862-1863

  Manuscripts

  In the letters to his wife, John B. Burrud, shared his war experiences, political views, religious sentiments, and intense longing for his home and family. The letters, many written over two or three days, cover the regiment's organization in Auburn, New York in September 1862; training in New York City; the voyage to Louisiana; the 1863 campaigns in Louisiana and duty at Morgan City, Bayou Boeuf, and Pattersonville; Burrud's month-long stay in St. James Hospital in New Orleans; the Red River and the Shenandoah Valley Campaigns of 1864, including the battles of Pleasant Hill (April 9), the third Winchester (September 19), Fisher's Hill (September 22-23), and Cedar Creek (October 19); duty at Middletown and Winchester, Virginia (1864 October27-1865, April), and Washington, D.C. (1865 April-June); the Grand Review (1865 May 23-25); and duty at Savannah and Hawkinsville, Georgia (1865 June-November). In addition to the detailed accounts of the campaigns and battles and discussion of the commanding officers (Weitzel, Banks, Grant, Sheridan, and others), Burrud's letters contain descriptions of Louisiana, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia countryside, especially historical sites (e.g. the remains of the Jamestown church; the place of John Brown's execution; Blakely, a farm near Charles Town, West Virginia that belonged to George Washington's family, museums, public building, and gardens of Washington, D.C., or a Creek Indian mounds in Pulaski County), and natural wonders and various species of wildlife. He also reports, often in elaborate detail, encounters with residents, particularly enslaved people, contrabands, and women ("Yaller Gals"), who flocked to the Union lines as well as members of freedmen's aid associations and Union sympathizers. Burrud shares his thoughts on a wide range of subjects: slavery ("most damnable man degrading, soul killing, God dishonoring Institution that ever was permitted to exist on the face of the earth"); the Union cause ("the good of Mankind and the world and the Maintenance of the best and the Only true form of Government of the face of the Earth"); the Confederate government ("Jeff Davis's Empire"); Copperheads ("Political Miscreants"), African American soldiers whom he considered superior to white soldiers from "9 month regiments" and substitutes; guerrilla warfare, and race relations. He also at length discusses personal concerns and troubles of "the Boys" in his company, including an outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases and an alarming rate of marital infidelity that seems to have affected most of soldiers' wives of Wayne County; the role of women in the war effort; news from home (including his profound disappointment in the lack of patriotism and respect for the Union uniform on the part of the people of his hometown); war and political news; recruiting and draft; home front, religious revival in Marion; etc. Burrud, a staunch Republican, avidly followed political news, especially the New York state elections of 1863 and the 1864 elections. The letters also contain news from the 111th Regiment of New York Infantry where his brother William G. Burrud and his brother-in-law, Joseph Newton served as privates. An accomplished musician, Burrud also at length discusses music and army bands. Three pocket diaries cover the years of 1863, 1864, and 1865; the entries contain accounts of campaign and battles, duties, detachments, and details; and war and political news.

  mssHM 75115-75334

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  Leonard T. Caplinger papers, (bulk 1862-1863)

  Manuscripts

  Correspondence between Leonard T. Caplinger and his wife Mary; Caplinger's pocket diary kept in 1863; miscellaneous receipts

  mssHM 28385-28396

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  Montgomery Meigs Papers

  Manuscripts

  The majority of the collection consists of letters sent by Montgomery Meigs to his parents, Montgomery Cunningham Meigs and Louisa Rodgers Meigs, and his sister, Louisa Rodgers Meigs Forbes (known as Loulie), while he was working as a surveyor and engineer on the Northern Pacific Railroad in Minnesota and the Dakota and Montana Territories from 1870-1873. The correspondence begins in May 1870, when Meigs was traveling by rail to Minnesota by way of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and continues with his impressions of St. Paul and his visit to Saint Anthony Falls, including a description of an 1869 bridge collapse there. In June 1870 he accompanied a surveying party to the Old Crow Wing area, where he wrote of Ojibwa Indians, the particulars of running a railroad line, his hunting of prairie chickens, and conflicts between homesteaders and the railroad. In September Meigs went on an expedition through the Detroit Woods, running a line from the Oak Lake area toward Georgetown, Minnesota. During this time Meigs wrote of camp life and the progress of the railroad line, before he was sent back to St. Paul and later the new railroad headquarters in Brainerd. In April 1871 Meigs accompanied new chief engineer Thomas Lafayette Rosser to the Dakota Territory. Although they made some progress past Fort Rice, Meigs wrote that by June the threat of Sioux attacks had forced them to turn back. In the fall of 1871 Meigs went on the Whistler Expedition to the Yellowstone River, and in April 1872 he was made a resident engineer for the railroad line heading east. His letters frequently mention his difficulties with his new position, including his continual conflicts with the contractors and the slowness of his party's work (Meigs blamed a shortage of men and supplies for their lack of progress). By the end of May he was considering leaving the railroad, and in September 1872 wrote extensively of the Northern Pacific's ongoing economic and management issues. In a December 1872 letter sent from Fargo, Meigs wrote to his parents that "the N.P.R.R. appears to be hard up...[and] they have so disbanded the fine engineer corps we had and were so proud of that I scarcely care whether I stay or go." But in June 1873 Meigs still held his position, and was preparing to serve as chief of party for another Yellowstone Expedition, this one accompanied by the 7th Cavalry ("Custer's Cavalry...present a fine appearance on the march," Meigs wrote admiringly). In September they had established themselves at Camp Thorne in the Montana Territory, and Meigs' final letter of the trip, dated September 9, 1873, was written shortly after he had explored the Musselshell Valley. Meigs' next letter was written in August 1874, when he was in Rock Island, Illinois, waiting to go on an expedition up the Mississippi River. He had apparently left the railroad and was employed in making leisurely surveys to estimate the cost of deepening the channel. His final letter was written on May 17, 1875, and in it he wrote to his father that "I think I may someday work into the place of U.S. Civ. Engr." Individuals Meigs met, worked with, or wrote of throughout his correspondence include Walter Atwood Burleigh, George Washington Cass, Ignatius Donnelly, Thomas Lafayette Rosser, and General Ira Spaulding. Also included in the collection are original sketches made by Meigs during his expeditions; typescripts of his letters, some with extended accounts, made by Meigs in 1929; and miscellaneous Meigs family ephemera.

  mssMeigs

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  1846-1863 February

  Manuscripts

  Correspondence between Samuel F. Gay and his father Jabez J. R. Gay (born 1809). Samuel F. Gay’s letters were chiefly written while in camps in Washington, D.C., Downsville, Maryland, Warrenton, and Brandy Station, Virginia, with several letters describing the battles of Williamsburg, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, and the Peninsular and Rapidan campaigns. The letters depict various aspects of life as a Union soldier including officers, Confederate prisoners, payments, rations, reviews and drills, diseases, and medical care. Also present is information on movements of the troops and discussion of war and political news. Jabez R. Gay’s letters contain news from home, discussion of political issues of the day, such as slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation and the nature and course of the war. Also included are letters from Edwin C. Bragg to Jabez J. R. and Samuel F. Gay, including an account of the Battle of Roanoke Island in February 1862. There are also individual letters that concern other family members and Gay's post-war life. Ephemera includes a clipping from the New York Herald, 1862, containing an article on the battle of Fredericksburg, and a printed sheet containing: A poem composed by a pious woman, soon after the taking of Cape-Breton, the first time : upon Christian love and peace. joined with united fervent prayer, / Composed by Mrs. Deborah Field, 1745, printed by N. Coverly, Boston, between 1805 and 1824.

  mssHM 47984-48000