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Civil War and Reconstruction |
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Clothing the 1st Vermont Cavalry in the Civil War
COMPANY D, 1st VERMONT CAVALRY. [CIVIL WAR],
Manuscript Document Signed, June 1862: List of clothing distributed to 54 men, including 25 caps, 24 blouses, 50 trousers, 66 flannel shirts, 15 drawers, 19 bootees, 69 stockings, and 3 blankets. Each row signed by the soldier who received the items. 1 p., 15½ x 23¾ in.
Item #23879.02, $750
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Membership Certificate to the Naval Library and Institute for Lt. Cmdr. George Dewey
[GEORGE DEWEY],
Printed Document. A lithographed membership certificate to the Naval Library and Institute. Signed by Charles Steedman, President, & witnessed twice by Oliver L. Fisher. Navy Yard, Boston, Mass October 15, 1871. 11½ x 16½ in.
Item #22023.01, $750
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The Success of Black Troops At Petersburg, Virginia, Under Butler
[CIVIL WAR],
Broadside. New England Loyal Publication Society No. 200. Boston, Mass., June 27, 1864. 1 p., 9 x 10¾ in.
“They grinned and pushed on, and with a yell that told the southern chivalry their doom, [they] rolled irresistibly over and into the work.”
Item #23626, $750
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General Schofield’s Personal Gettysburg Official Records
[GETTYSBURG; GEN. JOHN M. SCHOFIELD],
Books, 3 Volumes – The War of the Rebellion: Gettysburg Official Records, devoted to the Battle of Gettysburg. Owned by Union General John M. Schofield (with his stamp in first volume).
Item #23060, $750
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The Nation Mourns
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN],
Newspaper. Harper’s Weekly, May 6, 1865. 16 pp., complete, disbound.
Engravings include: Lincoln and son Tad at home. Scene at the death bed of President Lincoln. Funeral service at the White House. Ford’s Theatre. Attempted assassination of Secretary Seward. Citizens viewing the body at City Hall, New York.
Item #H-5-6-1865, $750
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“The Excursion of the Bought Nominations” Showing Balloon “Union League”
[CIVIL WAR],
Broadside, “The Excursion of the Bought Nominations, The Large Balloon ‘Union League,’ Will Start Immediately. The Balloon is managed by the Old Hunkers in the Ring.” [1864]. 4 ¾ x 8 ½ in.
Item #21986.04, $750
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Union Soldiers Recounts Conquest of Island No. 10
[ISLAND NO. 10],
Amos Downing, Autograph Letter Signed, to his brother (Philip Downing). Island No. 10. [New Madrid], Missouri, April 9, 1862. 4 pp. With autograph envelope.
A day after the Confederate surrender, Amos Downing gives his brother an exciting account of the Siege of Island No. 10 from the perspective of someone who may have served under Commodore Andrew Foote in the riverboat fleet that collaborated with General John Pope. Downing correctly identifies Fort Pillow, eighty miles to the south on the Mississippi, Memphis, and New Orleans as the next Union targets in the Mississippi Valley. His description of Confederate prisoners reveals a measure of discontent within Southern ranks. “The prisoners taken here are all Irish they say that they were force[d] in the service and are satisfied to be taken prisoner. They didnt know what to make of maters. They said first a big smoke and next a noise like thunder and next thing the devil himself would come among them and that was worst than fighting with sticks. They say the first shell killed fifteen men there lost is very heavy…”
Item #21890, $750
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“The Slave Sale, or Come Who Bids?” Abolitionist Sheet Music
HENRY RUSSELL and ANGUS REACH,
Sheet Music. The Slave Sale, or Come, Who Bids? 4 pp., with elaborate half-page vignette on the first page, showing various scenes of the slave trade. London: Musical Boquet Office. [Sheard, 1855]. “Composed by Henry Russell for his New Entertainment ‘Negro Life’ - Words by Angus B. Reach Esq.”
“Planters! Here’s a chance, Here are limbs to work or dance…”
Scarce English abolitionist music signed in print by composer Henry Russell on the front page.
Item #24738, $750
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Requesting Another Battery of Artillery During the Siege of Yorktown
CHARLES SMITH HAMILTON (1822-1891),
Autograph Letter Signed (“C. S. Hamilton”), as General U.S. Army, with additional autograph endorsements on verso by S. P. Heintzelman, James A. Hardie and William F. Barry. Div. Hd. Qrs., April 12, 1862. To Gen. S. Williams. 2 pp, 7¾ x 10 in., ruled paper, closed tear.
In the middle of the Civil War Siege of Yorktown, General Charles Hamilton fruitlessly asks for more artillery.
Item #20363.05, $800
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Gettysburg Doctor Returns to Civilian Practice after Helping in Army Hospitals
[BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG]. HENRY JANES,
Medical Director. Autograph Document Signed, releasing Dr. Robert Horner from further service at the expiration of his contract. Camp Letterman, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, October 24, 1863, 1 p. 8 x 10 in.
“A. Asst Surg. Robt Horner is hereby relieved from duty at this place on account of the expiration of his contract…”
During the course of the Civil War, 5,532 doctors served for short terms in military hospitals after battles, typically at the rate of $100 per month for at least three months. Following the Battle of Gettysburg, Camp Letterman became the largest field hospital ever built in North America. By August 1863, all temporary field hospitals were closed, but Camp Letterman remained, with over 3,000 patients. Approximately 1,200 men were initially buried on site at Camp Letterman. It closed in November 1863, when the last remaining patients left.
Item #23817, $850
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Future Confederate Naval Commander
ARTHUR SINCLAIR,
Autograph Letter Signed to unknown. U.S.S. Pennsylvania, Norfolk, January 22, 1861. 1 p., 7⅞ x 9¾ in.
Three months before his home state of Virginia seceded, U.S. Naval Commander Arthur Sinclair writes to a Commander in the Navy.
Item #21767, $850
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Future Confederate Secretary of War Makes Recommendation to War Department
JAMES SEDDON,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker. Sabot Hill, Virginia, September 4, 1861. With integral endorsement by Harrison. 2 pp., 5 x 7⅞ in.
Seddon, a Confederate Congressman from Virginia, recommends Captain George Harrison, a veteran of First Manassas, for promotion. “My friend and fellow Countryman Captn. George Harrison late of the Goochland Cavalry serving at Manassas, where he had the privilege of participating in the perils and honor of our late victory.”
Item #21774, $900
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Attending the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair in the Summer of 1864
[CIVIL WAR]. [ABRAHAM LINCOLN],
Great Central Fair Tickets, June 1864. Pair of passes for the Great Central Fair, held in Philadelphia, June 7-28, 1864. One ticket is for one day’s admission for a public school student. The other is a season ticket. 1 p. each, 3½ x 2¼ and 3½ x 2 in.
Two tickets to the Great Central Fair in Philadelphia. One admitted a pupil of the public schools of Philadelphia and was used on Saturday, June 11, according to the stamp on the verso. The other is an apparently unused “Season Ticket” that admitted the bearer “To All Parts of the Fair,” except the Children’s Exhibitions but was “Forfeited if Transferred and Not Good unless Endorsed.” The verso includes the oath, “I hereby promise that this Ticket shall be used to obtain admission to the Fair by myself only” and a blank line for a signature.
Item #24202, $950
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Lincoln Calls for the public to supports the U.S. Sanitary Commission
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN]. HENRY W. BELLOWS,
Printed Circular Letter, to “the Loyal Women of America.” Washington, D.C., October 1, 1861. 3 pp., 8 x 10 in.
“The Sanitary Commission is … of direct practical value to the nation, in this time of its trial. It is entitled to the gratitude and confidence of the people… There is no agency through which voluntary offerings of patriotism can be more effectively made. A. Lincoln.”
Item #24870, $950
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Prior to 1864 presidential election, McClellan’s former groomsman tries to even the field
SETH WILLIAMS,
Manuscript Letter Signed, to Marsena R. Patrick, October 4, 1864. 1 p.
Assistant Adjutant General Seth Williams writes to Provost Marshal M. R. Patrick that he will ask Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant to establish regulations to govern political agents in the camps prior to the 1864 elections.
Item #21386.03, $950
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Civil War Hero David Dixon Porter Expresses Support for the Chinese in a Time of Hostility
DAVID DIXON PORTER,
Autograph Letter Signed, to “Reverend Dr. Newman.” Washington, D.C., March 14, 1879. 3 pp., 5 x 8 in.
“As you and I have both expressed friendly sentiments towards the citizens of the Flowery Kingdom, we may hope to be in high favor should we live till that time.”
Item #22730, $950
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Winfield Scott Criticizes Zachary Taylor’s Illegal Order to Flog a Soldier
WINFIELD SCOTT,
Autograph Document Signed, November 18, 1843, with annotations initialed by him and dated December 1843. 2 pp.
“.... [H]earing of the illegal order & the illegal flogging, I looked into the case…”
Item #20735, $975
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Trial of Abraham Lincoln by the Great Statesmen of the Republic, a Mock Trial of President Lincoln for Treason
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN],
Pamphlet. Trial of Abraham Lincoln by the Great Statesmen of the Republic. A Council of the Past on the Tyranny of the Present. The Spirit of the Constitution on the Bench—Abraham Lincoln, Prisoner at the Bar, his own Counsel. New York: Office of the Metropolitan Record, 1863. Original printed wrappers, stitched. 29, [3] pp. First Edition.
In this creative pamphlet, Lincoln stands trial before a jury of his “peers,” former presidents and statesmen from American history, including Stephen A. Douglas, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Gouverneur Morris, Alexander Hamilton, John C. Calhoun, James Madison, George Mason, Elbridge Gerry, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and William Gaston. The author compiles passages from their speeches in mock dialogue with the defendant Lincoln as they contradict his defenses against their charges.
Item #23743, $980
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Accounting for “Contraband” Sailors in the Civil War Navy Bureaucracy
SAMUEL P. LEE,
Letter Signed, to Samuel B. Gregory, June 4, 1863. 1 p.
When enslaved African Americans fled to the ships of the Union blockading fleet, officers often sent them to “contraband” camps such as those at Port Royal, South Carolina, or Fortress Monroe, Virginia, or shipped them north. However, the Union Navy, short on manpower, also encouraged able-bodied male contrabands to enlist. In September 1861, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles authorized the enlistment of contrabands “under the same forms and regulations as apply to other enlistments.” As crew members of navy ships and gunboats, these black sailors served on blockade duty and even on expeditions up southern rivers and creeks.
On January 5, 1863, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered commanders of squadrons to forward monthly returns of “contrabands” employed on board the respective vessels under their command. The USS Western World had been part of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1861 and 1862. After extensive overhaul, the Western World was reassigned in March 1863 to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for service in the Chesapeake Bay.
In this letter, Acting Rear Admiral Samuel P. Lee chastises the Western World’s commander for the lack of details in his May 1863 “Contraband” report.
Item #22845, $1,000
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Returning the Western World to Blockade Duty to Squeeze the Confederacy
GIDEON WELLES,
Manuscript Document Signed, to Samuel B. Gregory, February 16, 1863; Endorsement signed by Acting Rear Admiral SAMUEL P. LEE. 1 p.
Item #22844, $1,000
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