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Archivist finds Lincoln's handwritten note from 1863

Associated Press - June 7, 2007 12:54 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Archives today unveiled a note handwritten by Abraham Lincoln that urged his generals to pursue Robert E-Lee's army after the battle of Gettysburg.

The notes underscores 1 of the great missed opportunities for an early end to the Civil War.

A Civil War specialist discovered the note from July Seventh of 1863 in a batch of military papers stored among the billions of pages of historical documents at the mammoth archives building in Washington.

The text of Lincoln's note has been publicly known because the general to whom Lincoln addressed it telegraphed the contents verbatim to the front lines at Gettysburg. There, the Union army's leaders failed for more than a week to aggressively pursue Lee.

A week after Lincoln's note, the Confederate army slipped into Virginia and the war continued for two more years.

Where did he find it ?

Nomad;633352 wrote: Where did he find it ?


A Civil War specialist discovered the note from July Seventh of 1863 in a batch of military papers stored among the billions of pages of historical documents at the mammoth archives building in Washington

It could have been in the thousands of boxes of stuff they have there. That is what is so fun about doing research there......................

I get to go in 2 weeks.........................

Cool, Chonsi! Can anyone look through that stuff? Is it available to the public?

Oh yes, it is open to the Public. You have to be 16 or older, or have an assignment from a teacher to research. Lots of people go, it is always interesting to see what other records are pulled up. The majority of documents I used for my dissertation came from the Archives, and I go there every summer for a day or two for new stuff to write about.

On the front page is some more details about the Lincoln document.

http://www.archives.gov/index.html

Thanks for that link, Chonsi.

I think that's really neat about the archives. I hope you have a great time while you're there!

chonsigirl;633449 wrote: It could have been in the thousands of boxes of stuff they have there. That is what is so fun about doing research there......................



I get to go in 2 weeks.........................




What will your objective be ? American Indians ?

Yes, I am looking up some sources for an article I am writing on Native Americans.