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Manuscripts

William Rattle Plum letters to Robert S. Paul

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Description
Letters that Plum wrote to his friend and classmate Robert S. Paul between March 30, 1861 and January 1865. The letters discuss the affairs of the Cuyahoga Falls Literary Club, including the election of the officers, purchase of books, etc.; Plum's work for the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad; his Civil War service with the Department of Cumberland, especially in Kentucky and Tennessee; the leave in the fall of 1863 spent touring New York, South Connecticut, and Massachusetts; state and national politics; the affairs of the United States Military Telegraph, including a failed attempt to secure military commissions for the operators; his studies at Yale, plans for the future, etc. Plum prided himself on his telegraph skills, in particular his ability to "read my messages by sound." The letter of April 15, 1861 includes the news of the fall of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln's proclamation calling for militia, etc. as they were coming off the wire. Also included is a draft of a report or a petition in favor of granting military commissions to telegraph employees; on the verso, a record of an 1864 telegram in shorthand.
Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date
1861-1864.
Call number
mssHM 82560-82576
Creator
Plum, William Rattle (1845-1927)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance
Purchased from Seth Kaller, Inc., February 2016. Cowan's American History, November 11, 2015, Lot 197.
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

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