Assorted papers, 1861-1866, n.d. Contains manuscripts and correspondence

Abstract

Assorted papers, 1861-1866, n.d. Contains manuscripts and correspondence including:

A four-page document on a folded sheet that begins “To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: A memorial of Major General John E. Wool of the United States army for back pay due him, which has been improperly and illegally withheld from him by the United States accounting officers…” A letter to Major Gen. John E. Wool from Matthias Coons dated at Brooklyn, N.Y., July 1, 1861. Coons wrote a very favourable letter to Wool noting that “I most truly and faithfully believe that you are now the only living man by the help of God that can be instrumental in saving this once beloved and glorious country…”. The letter was written a few months after the start of the American Civil War. Coons writes “Can you not devise some plan by which an armistice can be agreed upon and a stay of all further proceedings until the [sovereign?] people can be heard both North & South. Cannot you advise a convention chosen directly from the whole people and meet together and try to agree to such a reconstruction or modification in the constitution satisfactory to all parties or a peacible separation.” A draft letter to Gen. B.F. [Benjamin Franklin] Edmands, August 3, 1861. Edmands was a general in the Massachusetts state militia. The letter is unsigned but was written by Wool and is dated at Troy, August 3, 1861. Wool thanks Edmands for his generous letter noting that “it truly came as ‘balm to a wounded spirit’. I was and am mortified at the outrageous treatment which I have received from the administration… the President as well as the Secretary and also Lieutenant General acknowledged great obligations to the Union Defence Committee for sending troops and supplies so opportunely for the defence and protection of the Federal Capital being in imminent danger of capture by rebels. So well satisfied was the President and Secretary of War with their conduct he is promptly forwarding troops and supplies to Washington that they made arrangements with the Committee to forward immediately ten additional Volunteer Regiments”. He later writes “the excuse…for not sending me in the field or giving me a command according to my rank being next to General Scott…is more I am too old, weak and feeble to perform field duty when I was never in better health, not only during the week I was engaged in New York, but ever since. I can truly say that I have not been in as perfect health for the last 20 years as I am at the present moment. An excuse can always be furnished for acts of injustice.” A duplicate letter of the one above in secretary’s writing, dated at Troy, August 3, 1861, and signed by John E. Wool. A cover sheet listing five letters written by or to General Wool in 1861. The two letters above are listed here, as well as three other letters that are not included. A letter to John J. Knox from Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury, June 23, 1866. Wool is not mentioned. The letter is three pages and begins “On receipt of this letter you will in conformity with the 11th section of the act of August 6, 1846 proceed to San Francisco and make an examination of the book accounts and moneys on hand in the office of the Assistant Treasurer of the United States and of the Treasurer and Superintendent of the Branch mint. The recent defalcation of the Cashier and also the controversy which has arisen between the Treasurer and the Superintendent relative to the manner in which the loss of $20,000 in coin is alleged to have occurred under it [is] important that you should…investigate…” The remainder of the letter provides specific details of what he is to investigate and who to confer with.