Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Autographs of Civil War Officers and U.S. Statesmen, Accession #2010, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection was purchased from William F. Kelleher, of Grantwood, New Jersey on September 7, 1944.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of ca. 80 items, ca. 1810-1885, of Civil War officers and U.S. statesmen. The correspondence and documents have been chiefly compiled for their autograph value, but numerous letters also concern military tactics during the Civil War, and political matters.

Autographs, 1810, 1830s-1840s, contain letters from Pascoe Grenfel; General Lewis Cass; John Parker Hale; Braxton Bragg; Philip Francis Thomas; and Charles Clark.

Letters of interest include: April 24, 1833, George McDuffie, Cherry Hill, South Carolina, mentioning his speech on the Force bill; May 8, 1834, Henry Laurence Pinckney, Washington, D.C., discussing nullification and the deposit question; September 18, 1843, Dan Weisiger Adams, Jackson, Mississippi, requesting financial aid for an upcoming case against him in Warren County Circuit Court and discussing Mississippi politics; May 18, 1844, Ward Hunt, Washington, D.C., to Don A. Cushman, discussing the efforts of Whigs to publish and mail communications meant to enlighten the people and counteract efforts of opponents, explaining the necessity of gaining funds throughout the country for the Whig cause.

Autographs, 1850s, include letters from William Morris Meredith; Albert Gallatin Brown; Roger Atkinson Pryor; Daniel Stevens Dickinson; John Minor Botts; William Matthew Fenton; Henry Flagg French; William Bigler; John Parker Hale; Robert Augustus Toombs; John Jones McRae; Isaac Toucey; and Samuel Deanes.

Letters of interest include: January 3, 1853, Walker Brooke, Washington, D.C., with lists of addresses of ex-governors and former members of Congress; August 28, 1856, S.D. [Watkins], Freeport, concerning political controversy in the country and the election of 1856; December 8, 1859, Lewis Penn Withers Balch, Newport, Rhode Island, writing of the threat of war with the south and events at Harper's Ferry.

Autographs, 1860s, include letters and military documents and telegrams from Francis Preston Blair; George T. Swann; Thaddeus Stevens; Benjamin Gratz Brown; John Esten Cooke; Francis Wilkinson Pickens; Richard Napoleon Batchelder; Walter Cauthen Cutting (military pass); Benjamin Franklin Butler (autograph) and John Schuyler Crosby.

Letters of interest include: February 11, 1860, John L. Morgan, Camp Floyd, Utah, to A.R. Boteler, concerning the disposition of troops in Utah and the great influence on war of Mormon church; January 8 & 9, 1861, David Flavel Jamison to Brig. Gen. [James] Simons, on troops movement in Charleston, countermanding an order for embarkation of troops on the Marion; June 7, 1861, Samuel Taylor Glover, St. Louis, Missouri, inquiring about steps taken by the Missouri Legislature to preserve the Union, including vigilante committees, enrollment of Union soldiers, etc; February 26, 1862, Col. Benjamin James Lea, to Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles, listing the numbers of men and regiments in his command; June 13, 1862, Major General Edward A. Palfrey, C.S.A. Headquarters, Jackson, Mississippi, to Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles, discussing supply movements.

Other items of interest include: June 27, 1864, special orders signed by John Archer Coke for a free Negro to report as a shoemaker; August 29, 1865, document detailing 100 bales of cotton hauled away from Vicksburg plantation signed by Thomas C. Jones and George K. Birchett; August 31, 1868, to Lt. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, a bill for six rooms and fuel for August and acknowledgement with payment by check of W.T. Sherman.

Autographs, 1870s, include letters from Stewart Lyndon Woodford; Richard W. Johnson; Thurlow Weed; Emmons Clark, John Wood; Benjamin Harvey Hill; Hiram Casey Young; James Edmund Bailey; Isham Green Harris and Haywood Yancey Riddle; Otho Robards Singleton; Fernando Wood and John Wood.

Letters of interest include: May 8, 1872, Edward Alfred Pollard, Lynchburg, Virginia, to Roberts Brothers, Publishers-Boston, concerning the completion of the book The Lost Curse as a follow up to the book The Lost Cause , and dealing with the condition and progress of African-Americans since emancipation; December 5, 1873, Edward Swift, Newport Barracks, to Major General William Worth Belknap, containing a long discussion about his experiences in the Mexican War and how they relate to the situation in Cuba; May 7, 1879, Major General Irvin McDowell, San Francisco, broadside, regarding his impressions of the Fitz-John Porter case.

Autographs, 1880s, include letters from John Henninger Reagan; William Paris Chilton; Joseph Eggleston Johnston; Samuel West Peel to Benjam Perley Poore; William Ruffin Cox; William Hayne Perry; and Benjamin Franklin Butler.

Undated autographs are from Simon Cameron; Andrew Johnson, Winfield Scott; Alexander Stewart Webb; M.C. Yancey; Stephen Arnold Douglas, Varina Jefferson Davis, Ambrose E. Burnside, and Roscoe Conkling.