As military secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), Adam Badeau witnessed the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. He describes the occasion in this letter to his friend, General James Harrison Wilson (1837–1925), commending both Grant and Lee for their dignity and magnanimity. Gift of Shirley W. Morgan. Civil War Letters of Adam Badeau, Manuscripts Division.
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General James Harrison Wilson commanded the cavalry unit that captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis (1808–1889) on May 10, 1865. In this letter written three days later to his close friend Adam Badeau (1831–1895), military secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), Wilson vividly narrates the possibly apocryphal story of Davis’s attempt to escape disguised as a woman. Gift of Shirley W. Morgan. Civil War Letters of Adam Badeau, Manuscripts Division.
Isaac Plumb Jr. served in the 61st New York Infantry of the Union Army during the Civil War from his enlistment in 1861 until his death in 1864 from wounds suffered at the Battle of Cold Harbor. On display are his swords and items in his wallet at the time of his death, including this portrait of him, a letter from home, a telegram sent a week after he was wounded, and an ace of hearts. Isaac Plumb Jr. Family Papers, Manuscripts Division.
More than 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing after the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, still considered the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. Antietam was also the first American battlefield to be photographed before the dead were buried. These photographs were owned by General George McClellan (1826–1885), the leader of the Union forces at Antietam, and taken by Alexander Gardner, McClellan’s staff photographer. Gardner’s photographs shocked viewers, many of whom saw these devastating scenes of war for the first time. Gift of George B. McClellan, Class of 1886. George B. McClellan Papers, Manuscripts Division.