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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 1646
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 571
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Historical artifacts
page
SMC 242
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Robert E. Lee's Famous Letter Declining to Furlough, As a Rule, Jewish Confederate Troops for the High Holidays
August 29, 1861
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 2494
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Historical artifacts
1 page
SMC 2241
Ten-Cent Sutler coin of Henry Rice, a close friend of President Lincoln's. A sutler is a civilian merchant who sells goods and provisions to soldiers, usually out of the back of a wagon, with which he would follow the moving army.
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Historical artifacts
1 page
SMC 2242
This Civil War Sutler token, at 50 cents, is the largest denomination of sutler currency issued during the war. This token was issued by Henry Rice, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, who would come to endorse Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer, remain friends with Lincoln throughout his career, and even to offer to make his inaugural suit.
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Carte de Visite
1 page
SMC 1764
This photograph was taken in Baltimore, where the German rabbi had his first American congregation, and where he eventually had to flee for his life due to his outspoken opposition to slavery. He would never return.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1767
Millard Fillmore accuses abolitionists of "destroying the Constitution" and attempting to "prevent a reunion of the states," in addition to "perverting this war into a war for emancipation."
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Autograph Endorsement Signed
1 page
SMC 1811
Abraham Lincoln directs the release of "this boy" who had enlisted in the Union Army and received the standard bonus. Whether the boy was underage, AWOL, or a bounty-jumper(one of many who signed up for the enlistment bonus and then deserted) is unknown.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 2182
General Butler, discussing the arrest of two Jewish blockade-runners, displays his notorious anti-Semitism.
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Historical artifacts
1 page
SMC 2234
Lazarus Goldheim 25-cent token: Goldheim, hailing from Baltimore, was the sutler for the 1st Virginia Cavalry, one of the Confederacy's most celebrated fighting units.
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Simon Wolf's Original Contract For the Book "The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen"
May 22, 1895
Document Signed
3 pages
SMC 109
This contract between author and scholar Simon Wolf, and publisher and editor Louis E. Levy, is a seminal document of a seminal work, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen, first published in 1895 and still in print, and use, over one hundred years later.
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"Doomed to the Gallows" By Public Opinion, James Buchanan Says History Will Vindicate Him
May 8, 1863
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 127
Despite being condemned by the Chief Justice and public opinion, Buchanan, unwaveringly trusts in the words of his Secretary of War, James Holt, who wrote that Buchanan's "labors will yet be crowned by the glory that belongs to an enlightened Statesmanship & to an unsullied patriotism."
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At the behest of President Lincoln, General Grant Decline's Lee's Suggestion of Armistice Negotiations
March 4, 1865
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 147
General Grant obediently replies to Secretary of War Edward Stanton with repeated crossed out protestations that he was not trying to usurp any authority. He had previously written to Stanton to ask if he could accept General Lee's invitation to negotiate an armistice, and had received a rebuke from President Lincoln himself.
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Benjamin Mordecai, Jewish Benefactor of Confederate Cause Honored by the Famed Palmetto Riflemen
January 12, 1861
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 148
Benjamin Mordecai graciously responds to the soldiers of the Palmetto Riflemen, who had thanked him for his donation.
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Jewish Civil War Union Surgeon Morris Asch Rules on Another Surgeon's Exorbitant Bill
December 2, 1861
Autograph Endorsement Signed
6 pages
SMC 157
A Dr. McCoy, accused by the Surgeon General of charging exorbitantly for emergency services rendered, has had his bill cut in half. Asch rejects McCoy's appeal, and upholds the decision to reduce the bill.
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Abraham Lincoln Appoints Henry Ernest Goodman as Surgeon of Civil War Union Volunteer Army
May 16, 1864
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 160
President Abraham Lincoln promotes the eminent and beloved physician, Henry Ernest Goodman, of Philadelphia, from assistant surgeon to surgeon. Edward Stanton, the Secretary of war, co-signed the document.
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In Refusing a Parole, Lincoln Notes That Federal Prisoners Are Being "Frozen and Starved" in Libby Prison
March 3, 1864
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 162
Here, Lincoln replies to a request from his wife Mary’s cousin, Lyman Todd, that he cannot "enlarge on parole" a Colonel Smith. Such a thing would set a precedent, he says, upon which nearly all the prisoners held by the Union might act – and this, in the face of how the Confederacy was treating Federal prisoners, is completely unacceptable.
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 166
Jewish Colonel Max Friedman Certifies the enlistment of Joshua Pickering into the Cameron Dragoons, a largely Jewish regiment.
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Union Soldier After Gettysburg: "We Will Whip Lee's Army So That He Will Not be Fit to Do Anything More"
July 6, 1863
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 168
A letter from a Union soldier to his family after the battle of Gettysburg. He lists missing soldiers, and reports the numbers of dead, wounded, and missing.
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Jewish Confederates: Letter Regarding Benjamin Mordecai's Support of a Commission for Jacob Valentine
February 1, 1861
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 181
The secretary to the governor of South Carolina assures Charleston native Benjamin Mordecai that Jacob Valentine would be considered for a commission in service to the state. Mordecai had made possible South Carolina's secession from the Union with a generous donation.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 190
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Autograph Endorsement Signed
1 page
SMC 209
Lincoln asks William Alexander Hammond, the Surgeon General of the Union Army if a Mr. Bushnell should be appointed. Hammond replies in the affirmative, as there is a place for Bushnell at Louisville.
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Three Days Before He is Assassinated, Abraham Lincoln Orders the Discharge of a Sickly Boy from the Army
April 11, 1865
Autograph Note Signed
4 pages
SMC 211
Three days before he will be shot and killed, Lincoln responds to a friend’s letter beseeching his help in arranging the discharge of a sickly boy from the army.
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Alexander Hart's Civil War Sword and Scabbard, Presented Upon His Promotion to Captain
February 22, 1862
Historical artifacts
3 pages
SMC 255
Sword and Scabbard of Alexander Hart, a religious Jewish haberdasher who led the 5th Louisiana Infantry.
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William Tecumseh Sherman Vents Anti-Semitic Prejudices, Discusses Runaway Slaves, & Sketches Total War
November 2, 1862
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 259
Writing during the war, Sherman casually blames smuggling and theft on Jews. Additionally, he depicts the hatred of the Southern population towards the North, justifying, presumably, his harsh conduct of war.
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Letter From Gettysburg Battlefield, July 4th, 1863: Union Soldier Hopes "This Battle Will End the War"
July 4, 1863
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 299
Writing to his mother on the fourth of July, Private Strouss tells his her that he is alive, unharmed, and although unsure who has won, he hopes that "this Battle will end the war" so that he may return home.
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 307
Promotion of war hero Lt. Commander James Kelsey Cogswell to Commander; signed by William McKinley on the first day of his second term as president.
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Jewish General Edward S. Salomon Accepts an Invitation to Meet With His Old Comrades-in-Arms
January 28, 1868
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 308
Edward S. Salomon was a hero of Gettysburg and Atlanta, rising through the ranks and eventually becoming a Brigadier General. He commanded a Jewish regiment, the 82nd Illinois, and here accepts an invitation "to meet the officers of the late Army of the Cumberland."
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 347
Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, pleaded with Lincoln not to go to Petersburg because of great personal risk to the President. Lincoln responds that he had already been to Petersburg with Grant, and plans to go to Richmond, newly fallen, as well. He assures Stanton that he will take care of himself.
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"Occident" Subscriber Begs Rabbi Leeser to Write Abraham Lincoln and Convince Him to Stop the Civil War
May 22, 1861
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 349
A subscriber of Leeser's periodical The Occident beseeches the publicly neutral Leeser to intervene with President Lincoln in order to end the Civil War.
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Autograph Document Signed
1 page
SMC 352
The Oath of December 8 was announced by Lincoln, on that day, in his annual message to congress in 1863. He would offer a pardon to any man who would swear, without coercion, his allegiance to the Union.
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Ulysses S. Grant Tries to Lose the Anti-Semite Label Engendered to Him by His Infamous “Jew Order”
August 14, 1868
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 394
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Former President Franklin Pierce Defends Himself Against Treason Charges Brought by William H. Seward
March 24, 1862
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 422
Franklin Pierce, a public detractor of President Lincoln and of the Union, is charged with being a member of a secret league, intending to overthrow the government. Incensed by the publication of the allegations, Pierce arranges for his old friend, Senator Latham of California, to introduce a resolution demanding that all the correspondence in the matter be submitted to Congress for inquiry.
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President Abraham Lincoln Appoints Jewish West Pointer Alfred Mordecai Jr. Second Lieutenant
August 10, 1861
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 445
President Abraham Lincoln appoints Alfred Mordecai Jr. a Second Lieutenant four months into the Civil War. Mordecai would climb the ranks and die a general.
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Abraham Lincoln Suggests Suffrage for Some Louisiana Blacks: The "Very Intelligent" and Union Veterans
March 13, 1864
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 448
Abraham Lincoln tactfully suggests to the new governor of the freshly freed state of Louisiana, Michael Hahn, that Hahn might grant suffrage for blacks who either fought for the Union or were "very intelligent." This proposal was a very elegant compromise between those who did not want suffrage for blacks and those who did; it also ensured that Lincoln, right before an election, didn't rock the boat too much.
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Abraham Lincoln Swears That He Shall Not Retract or Modify the Emancipation Proclamation
December 20, 1863
Autograph Quotation Signed
1 page
SMC 455
At the request of Henry C. Wright of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Lincoln vows to not retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Abraham Lincoln's Check to His Son, Robert Lincoln, to Equip Him For Service Under Grant
February 20, 1865
Check Signed
1 page
SMC 456
Check from Abraham Lincoln to his son, Robert Todd Lincoln. The president had finally allowed his son to serve in the war, and made sure he was sent to General Grant. This check was to ensure that his son was properly kitted out for war.
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Contemporary Copy of Chase's Letter to Abraham Lincoln in Support of General Hunter's Emancipation Order
May 16, 1862
Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 501
Salomon P. Chase, President Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, was the most ardent abolitionist in Lincoln's cabinet. Here, he praises General Hunter's declaration of emancipation of all slaves in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 566
Shortly after having been part of the Union loss at the Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln, in an effort to encourage the troops, promotes Sherman to General. Sherman would devastate the South and ensure Union victory three years later.
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Lincoln Would be Glad to See General Milroy but knows "...He Wishes to Ask for What I Have Not to Give"
October 19, 1863
Autograph Note Signed
1 page
SMC 570
Abraham Lincoln gracefully sidesteps a meeting with the problematic General Milroy, who was arrested for losing half of his troops. Milroy railed against his superiors, who jailed him for his actions, and continuously pestered Lincoln for his release and restoration to command.
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The Day He Dies, Lincoln Writes a Pass to Richmond for Wife of the Doctor Who Would Attend His Death-Bed
April 14, 1865
Autograph Note Signed
1 page
SMC 575
Lincoln issues a pass for Mrs. Alice Stone to travel to Richmond; by that night her husband, the Lincoln family physician, would be attending at Lincoln’s deathbed.
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"All is Over and Lincoln Elected," John Tyler Writes, "As Confidence Between Man and Man is Giving Way"
November 10, 1860
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 586
Here, just six days after Abraham Lincoln won the presidency with a scant 40% of the vote, Former President John Tyler laments the election.
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Broadside
1 page
SMC 625
South Carolina proclaims it has dissolved its bonds to the United States, becoming the first state to secede.
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Harper's Weekly With Illustrated Story About Five Union Soldiers, Including a Jew, Executed for Desertion
September 26, 1863
Ephemera
3 pages
SMC 650
Original Harper's Weekly for September 26, 1863 about the execution of five Union deserters at Beverly Ford; with illustrations.
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Excessively Rare "Rice and Byers" One Dollar Sutler Token from Fort Sill in the Indian Territory
1870
Historical artifacts
1 page
SMC 864
Possibly the only surviving sutler token from the trading post at Fort Sill.
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Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 961
President Pierce fears that if the Kansas-Nebraska Bill-which granted the States the right to decide on slavery-would not pass, Civil War would ensue.
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 976
The Copperheads were northern Democrats who blamed the abolitionists for the Civil War and wished to see Lincoln and the Republicans ousted from power. This broadside is a Republican plea to voters to ponder-and ultimately reject-the traitorous nature of the Copperheads and their ringleader, Franklin Pierce. Shortly after this broadside appeared, Lincoln was victorious in his reelection campaign.
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Buchanan Approves Abraham Lincoln’s Ordering Fremont to Rescind His Emancipation Proclamation
September 27, 1861
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 984
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Account of Execution of Deserters at Beverly Ford Mentions Rabbi Praying With One of the Condemned Men
August 29, 1863
Autograph Letter Signed
5 pages
SMC 1026
Captain Jacob Winans writes to his father about the execution of deserters at Beverly Ford, mentioning the presence of a rabbi to pray with one of the convicted soldiers.
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Breathtaking Detailed Eyewitness Account of the Execution of Deserters at Beverly Ford
September 3, 1863
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1027
This eyewitness account details the chronology of events, or protocol of the execution of deserters at Beverly Ford. Those executed had with them the clergyman of their faith. They "were accompanied by a Catholic priest, a Jewish Rabbi and a Methodist preacher."
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Lincoln Interjects Himself Into a Case of Two Jewish Merchants Charged With Selling Goods to Blockaders
January 8, 1865
Autograph Note Signed
1 page
SMC 1038
Meyer and Philip Wallach were Jewish brothers who were charged with selling goods to blockaders and were held at an infamous prison for Confederate officers. Here, President Lincoln protects them by ordering the head of the prison to keep them in his custody - to neither send them away or allow them to be transferred.
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John Tyler, as President of the 1861 Washington Peace Convention, Certifies a Vermont Delegate
February 4, 1861
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1048
President John Tyler, who would eventually support the secession of the Southern states, certifies Lucius Chittenden of Vermont, as a delegate from that state, in the failed 1861 Washington Peace Convention. Chittenden took it upon himself to take the minutes of the Conference and indeed, published them three years later.
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John Tyler, as President of the 1861 Washington Peace Convention, Certifies a Delegate From Massachusetts
February 4, 1861
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1050
President John Tyler, who would eventually support the secession of the Southern states, certifies Charles Allen of Massachusetts as a delegate from that state, in the failed 1861 Washington Peace Convention.
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Millard Fillmore Asks Lincoln for a Favor; On the Back of the Letter, Lincoln Takes Steps to Oblige Him
May 19, 1863
Autograph Endorsement Signed
1 page
SMC 1065
Former President Fillmore asks President Lincoln to intercede on behalf of his nephew, a disgraced lieutenant. On the verso of the letter, Lincoln takes steps to oblige Fillmore, but ultimately did not intervene in the case.
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Millard Fillmore On the Fugitive Slave and Kansas-Nebraska Acts: "You Can Not Reason With Fanaticism"
September 12, 1856
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1069
Though he detested slavery, Millard Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave Act, which required citizens of Northern free states to return slaves to their Southern owners. He was denounced by politicians who four years later voted for the same rule of law to apply in the Kansas-Nebraska act. Here, he wishes to expose their hypocrisy.
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Abraham Lincoln's Appointment of Benjamin F. Isherwood, the Creator of the Steam Navy
March 10, 1863
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1081
Benjamin Isherwood designed steamboats that would quickly outrun blockade runners. Isherwood expanded the US Navy's fleet from 28 to 600 steam vessels in the course of the Civil War. Here, President Abraham Lincoln appoints Isherwood Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering.
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1084
Abraham Lincoln's draft order for the state of New York, which sparked riots and racially-motivated violence and murders. It was the second largest civil insurrection in American history.
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Abraham Lincoln Reacts to Attempted Jail-Break of Confederate POWs on Johnson Island
October 2, 1864
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1090
This note from Lincoln to the Naval Secretary Gideon Welles instructs him to get a firsthand report about the infamous attempted prison break of Confederate POWs on Johnson's Island.
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Oliver Wendell Holmes: At Fort Stevens, Abraham Lincoln Was Forced to Duck From Enemy Fire
June 14, 1922
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1106
Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes confirms that during the Civil War, when he was serving as a captain, President Abraham Lincoln came to visit the troops at Fort Stevens, during which they were fired upon. This was the only time in American history a sitting president has exposed himself to combat. President Lincoln was forced to duck from enemy fire.
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Statesman, Political Exile, Attorney, and Queen's Counsel, Judah Benjamin Arranges a Meeting
June 26, 1873
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1118
Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish former statesman of different roles in the Confederacy, relocated to England and became a successful barrister there. Four years before he wrote this letter, he obtained the rank of Queen's Counsel, and in order to save his correspondent the trouble, offers to call on her at home, rather than in his offices at the Temple.
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Robert E. Lee, Charmingly, and Piously, Responds to a Young Girl's Gift of Socks in 1865
December 20, 1865
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1123
Robert E. Lee thanks a little girl for her letter and her gift of socks that he has received upon becoming president of Washington College.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1124
Returning from Germany to the United States in the 1870s, General George McClellan speaks disparagingly of the Jewish people on board, and his success in distancing himself from the "children of Jacob."
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A Union Officer in the Field Describes the Reaction to News of Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
April 20, 1865
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1128
Here, an Ohio lieutenant, serving in Alabama, describes how the troops there received, and took, "news of the shocking murder of our president."
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Dr. Jacob Da Silva Solis Cohen Certifies the 1864 Death of a "Contraband" in Philadelphia
March 17, 1864
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1132
Here J. Solis Cohen certifies the death of a former slave in Philadelphia, identifying him as a "Contraband": a legally complicated and politically fraught designation indicating a "self-emancipated" human chattel, many of whom, as the Union armies moved in the South, rushed toward the advancing troops, there to join the ranks of their liberators.
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Historical artifacts
1 page
SMC 1529
Token of the Jewish sutler G.W. Forbes, who brought matzahs for his coreligionists of the Ohio 23rd regiment to celebrate the seder in 1862.
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Fresh From His Capture of Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant Reports From Gettysburg: "Meade Whipped Lee Badly"
July 10, 1863
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 1545
General Ulysses S. Grant assures Major General Banks-whose army lay in siege around the Mississippi-with two pieces of news. The first is that he is sending reinforcements. The second is that Major General George Meade defeated General Lee, and was pursuing him.
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Lincoln Asks General Grant as a Friend, for a Favor: Find a Place for His Son, Robert, on His Staff
January 19, 1865
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1548
In order to broker a compromise between his wife, who had already buried two sons, and Robert Todd, who desperately wished to experience the war, Lincoln writes to Grant, not as President, but as a friend, asking him to find a place on his staff for Robert to serve. Lincoln asks merely for his son to be given a nominal rank and that Lincoln himself, and not the public, would furnish his necessary means.
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Lincoln is "Not in a Sentimental Mood" Having Heard Reports of the Bloody Battle of the Wilderness
May 7, 1864
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1554
After just having heard that the union lost 1776 men in the Battle of the Wilderness, amongst other bad news, Lincoln was asked to give a sentiment for an autograph collector, Lincoln replied "I would give a sentiment, but just now I am not in a sentimental mood."
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Document Signed
4 pages
SMC 1619
Collection of documents signed by Henry C. Corbin, who, as Assistant Adjutant General during the Spanish-American War, established the policy that religious furloughs were to be granted freely to Jewish men in uniform.
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Autograph Document Signed
6 pages
SMC 1639
P.J. Horwitz, a Baltimore Jew appointed Surgeon General of the Navy, describes in detail the variety of gunshot wounds, and their treatment, early in the Civil War, as most surgeons had not yet encountered gunshot wounds.
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Jewish Confederate Hero Alexander Hart Grants Leave to Officers During a Brief Lull in the Civil War
March 9, 1864
Document Signed
2 pages
SMC 1642
Alexander Hart, a storied and battle-proven Major in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, directs and signs off on thirty-day leaves for officers.
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