Charles Sheehan-Miles

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National Archives uncovers handwritten note from Lincoln

The National Archives discovered in its stacks a handwritten note from Abraham Lincoln to General Henry Halleck four days after the battle of Gettysburg. What an incredible find, and it raises the question of what other kinds of really incredibly interesting stuff can be found in the archives. I wrote a couple of years ago about my search through the archives for information about my grandfather, who was captured on Java at the beginning of World War II along with his entire battalion.

It was fascinating spending the time there digging up those documents, which included an affadavit he wrote for a war crimes trial, photos of the camp he spent most of the war in, as well as all kinds of other interesting stuff.

Here's what Lincoln had to day, courtesy a post over at Knee Deep In Mud:

Major Genl Halleck
We have certain information that Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July. Now, if Gen. Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the litteral(sic) or substantial destruction of Lee's army, the rebellion will be over.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN

I had to come back and edit this on one point.  Since I normally rant about how inefficient and screwed up the government is, I should point out that my experience with the National Archives was superb. They are well organized, and the archivists are incredibly knowledgeable.  My first trip there, pretty much all I had was my grandfather's name, rank and serial number, and the fact that he'd been a POW in Japan.  Within an hour of talking to one of the archivists, they got me the first cable that reported his capture.  Pretty amazing.

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