Original manuscript of the Cumberland Compact of Government, or Articles of Agreement, entered into by settlers on the Cumberland River, May 1, 1780, at what is now Nashville, and signed May 13, 1780 by 255 inhabitants of five stations on the...
Journal documenting the 1779-1780 river voyage of Col. John Donelson and others, including women, children, and African Americans. The travelers sought to establish the first permanent settlement west of the Appalachians. Handwritten in ink on...
The first in a bound collection of colonial documents is a complete copy of the Proclamation of 1763 promulgated at the end of the French and Indian War by King George III of Great Britain. The item is hand-written in ink on paper, copied by John...
State government; Constitutions; Constitutional conventions; Law & legal affairs; Slavery; Freedmen; Suffrage; Lotteries
This first revision of the Tennessee Constitution addressed a variety of problems present in the original 1796 Constitution. Pages are handwritten on oversize paper and are laminated.
J. S. Burrow writes his brother from Chester County detailing his financial problems, his inability to collect money until cotton comes to market, his desire to move from Jacks Creek for better money-making opportunities, and his fear that he will...
Letter from Gamble Rutledge to his father, G. R. Rutledge, concerning his brother Robert's regiment, his parents' desire to move to Georgia, his brigade's activities, his desire to change his position in the regiment, and the status of his wounded...
Letter from Nancy Norris Warlick to her husband, Pvt. John N. Warlick, Co. G, 55th (Brown's) Tenn. Vol. Inf. Regt., CSA., written on paper imprinted with the CSA seal and image of Jefferson Davis. She reacts to the recent news that her husband had...
Letter from Robert Rutledge describing a Union cavalry raid on his camp in which several men were wounded or captured and also a fight beween Harry Henry and an artilleryman in the camp. He asks about the condition of Mr. Runion, who has small pox;...
Letter from Robert Rutledge expressing concern for his sick son, correcting an earlier assertion that a member of his company was killed, and describing plans to buy land in Texas. He asks his wife to buy needed provisions without concern for...
Social values; Domestic life; Soldiers; Military life; Military personnel; Military organizations; Armies; War; Cities & towns
Letter from Sarah Hamilton to Thomas Williams. She discusses patients at the war hospital in Columbia, rumors of the Yankees at Franklin and concern for her son, "Tommie."
Letter from Thomas Crutchfield Jr. to James R. Hood. Crutchfield makes an effort to prove his loyalty to the Union by recounting his opposition to secession, his informing the Federals of troop movements, his supplying of the Union army with...
Military discharge paper for Wallace Preston, Company H, 45th Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. Preston, a resident of Johnson County, Kentucky, enlisted on August 25, 1863 for a period of "one year or the duration of the war."
Notification of honorable discharge for T. H. Freeman from Captain John H. McLarin's Company F, 45th Tennessee Volunteers. Freeman enlisted on December 12, 1861. He was discharged due to medical disability. Freeman was born in Wilson County,...
One sheet of typed paper containing the oath of enlistment for members of the Tennessee State Guard during World War II. Also contained on the blank form are the enlistment record and declaration of the applicant.
One sheet of typed paper containing the training schedule, special orders, and sick report of the Second Regiment of the Tennessee State Guard for their March 1943 maneuvers at Camp Forrest.
Order from Confederate General James Longstreet, issued by Assistant Adjutant General William Small, directing the men to maintain their fortitude while enduring reduced rations and other hardships of the field, and presenting a letter captured...
Ordnance [sic] report for Co. A, 11th Tenn. Cav. Regt., USA. The report appears to be written on the back of a court case file, an example of reusing paper at hand. The report is filed and signed by Ordinance Seargent G. C. Perdew. The list...
Paper authorizing the transportation and release of Lewis S. Hodges, a citizen and prisoner, by order of the U. S. Quartermaster. Hodges was transferred from Nashville to Campbell Station, Tenn. He was tried and convicted on charges of disloyalty...
