A field report from the Battle of Gettysburg by Major Allen G. Brady, commander of the 17^th Connecticut Regiment, written on the 4^th of July, 1863, the day after the battle ended in a great victory for the Union.

“We had not more than time to form before the enemy were discovered advancing rapidly upon us on our right & a full Brigade obliquely towards our left….our fire was so destructive it checked their advance the troops on our left giving way the enemy came in behind us but we still remained firmly at the stone wall until the rebels were driven back.”

Featuring illustrations of Philadelphia Sanitary Fair Central buildings, and Generals Gouverneur Warren and Horatio Wright on the front page. “Belle Plain, Virginia General Grant’s Late Base of Supplies”; “Army of the Potomac—General Warren Rallying the Marylanders”; “President Lincoln and His Secretaries”; Centerfold: “Army of the Potomac—Struggle for the Salient, near Spottsylvania [sic], Virginia, May 12, 1864”; three illustrations of the environs of Spottsylvania [sic] Court House; “Sherman’s Advance—General Logan’s Skirmishes Advancing Toward: the Railroad at Resaca”; and “Sherman’s Advance—Position of Osterhau’s Division on Bald Hill.”

A Union colonel, in command of the 48^th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops, writes to his friend, Col. Julian E. Bryant, of the 46th Regiment of U.S.C.T., recounting his regiment’s  part in the Battle of Fort Blakely. “We have had hard marching & hard fighting. A week in trenches & a successful charge. The ‘Black bellied Yankee’ made their mark … everyone gives us credit for doing well & I think we did excellently well. … My loss was not very heavy, not over thirty all told. The other Regts in my Brigade suffered much more severely on the last charge, I being held in reserve & not being under fire but a few moments, they did gallantly…”

In the middle of the Civil War Siege of Yorktown, General Charles Hamilton fruitlessly asks for more artillery.

A cordial letter to Col. Charles J. Helm, Confederate agent in the West Indies, sending thanks to “M^rs. Phebe M. Newcomb” for her donation of wool socks to the Confederate Army. He takes the opportunity to speak eloquently to the privations that Southern troops, specifically the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, have endured. “Permit me to thank you, & thro’ you M^rs. Phebe M. Newcomb, for the wollen socks she has been kind enough to make…”

After Virginia adopted the Declaration of Independence, George Mason and James Madison began drafting a state Constitution. For James Madison, helping draft his state’s Constitution would serve as a dress rehearsal for his future task of writing the U.S. Constitution. Virginia adopted its first constitution in 1776, and a major revision in 1830 loosened suffrage requirements. As more residents populated the western counties, they were underrepresented in the legislature because of continuing property requirements for voting.

The most significant changes in the 1851 Constitution included the extension of the suffrage to all white males of voting age, the creation of the office of lieutenant governor, and the election rather than appointment of judges. Because of these changes, this version has been called the Reform Constitution.

“Gen^l Scott is in bad humor with the administration for appointing Reeder Brig Gen^l in regular army … We have the idea he will not favor Cump’s appt, except as Colonel…”

Ewing informs his father of political machinations in Washington and early Civil War plans and appointments. He painstakingly weighs the chances of his foster brother (and brother-in-law), William T. “Cump” Sherman, obtaining a general’s commission. He also offers a sober analysis of the relative strengths of the Union and Confederate armies in the Eastern theater. “The general impression is the first battle, after Pickens, will be at Norfolk. The Gov^t. is not ready. Gen^l Scott says Gen^l Impatience is the only opposing General he fears. At present, it is plain the enemy can put man for man in the field anywhere in eastern Virginia with us.”

Shannon, a militia colonel and state agent for the impressment of slave labor, requests the discharge of a number of slaves impressed for labor on military fortifications in Charleston, from the chief of staff of General Beauregard. Local planters depended on Shannon to force the state governor and the Confederate army to abide by the terms of the legislation granting the power to impress slave labor, in this case for a month’s time. A rare document concerning the joint effort between the Confederate government and the local planters to use slave labor for military fortifications. “I am officially identified with the success of a scheme which I have labored earnestly to make efficient, outside of that motive no man can be more deeply interested than I am in the success of the defence of Charleston, but I feel constrained from a sense of duty to ask the discharge of those Negroes furnished under the call for the 15^th July, who have worked over thirty days and which are relieved by the supply rendered in the past few days. The motive prompting this direct application is that I am informed by the Engineer Department that the Negroes could not be discharged…”

“The colored population of Fredericksburg are strolling about town and seem to be perfectly happy our country is ruined and slaughtered worse than beeves all on account of the negroes! Can it be possible, that man will sacrifice their country for the negro…”

A fine war-date newspaper published in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Articles on the front page describe the destruction of President Jefferson Davis’s Mississippi plantation, the Battle of Memphis, military actions near Richmond and an account of operations near Charleston, South Carolina. Several other articles deal with the subject of slavery.

Petitioning against General Order No. 46 of the Confederate War Department, which rescinded the part of the Confederate Conscription Act of April 16, 1862 that mandated the discharge of all voluntary enlistees under age 18 or over age 35 in July 1862. “These were the terms of the law. They were plain, unequivocal and mandatory. Common sense – universal public opinion … understood, accepted and adopted the law ... Shall an army order revoke a solemn act of Congress? … Have we a constitutional Government, with specific powers granted … or have we an unlimited Government, dependent only on Executive will or ministerial caprice? Are the People free or is the Executive supreme?”

Showing Union troops arriving in Philadelphia from New Jersey via ferry and marching in formation towards the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, cheered on by Philadelphians. Text at the bottom lists members of the committee and men willing to accept donations for the saloon. This image became a choice souvenir for soldiers passing through Philadelphia.

In February 1862, General Mansfield Lovell sends reinforcements to Albert Sidney Johnston, the chief Confederate commander in the West, so he can defend Nashville and Fort Donelson. The move was fruitless; Fort Donelson fell to Union troops a week after this letter was written.

Benjamin sends his official reports on the attacks on Forts Walker and Beauregard to Jefferson Davis, to be communicated to the Confederate Congress.

Broadside describing the first occupation of Winchester, Virginia, during the Civil War.