Tom - KB9ENS
Ok back to some #CitizenArchivist fun. For those just catching up the US national archives has a public facing catalog (catalog.archives.gov) where if you sign up can provide a human eye and conduct transcriptions of documents. I tend to focus on docs where the text is in cursive or difficult to OCR text. A few weeks ago I stumbled into a document of 379 pages titled "Confidential Letters Sent, Army of Northern Virginia, June 1863 October 1864"
#CivilWar #History #AmericanHistory a thread 1/5
Oct 18, 2024 at 1:34amWeb
Show threadTom - KB9ENSOct 18, 2024
My transcriptions are in the alt text, but here's what that picture says. "Publication office, War Records 1861-'65, Washington, May 22d 1883 Saml. Hodgkins. Esq. Chief of Records Division, War Department Dear Sir: I transmit here within copy, made in this office of General Robert E. Lee's Confidential Letters Book. June 7 1863 - October 12. 1864. The original is now in possession of Col. Charles Marshall, residing in Baltimore, Md, and belongs I am informed, the Southern Historical Society" 2/5
Show threadTom - KB9ENSOct 18, 2024

SO... what we've got here is a copy made in 1883 of all the outbound letters Robert E Lee sent in the period. Now... some interesting things happened in that period. For one... Lee took his rebel army, invaded Pennsylvania and was handed a doozy of a defeat at a place called #Gettysburg.

I thought it would be neat to see what a person like Lee says about that defeat to anyone really, but as it turns out, we get to see what he said to his boss rebel "president" Jefferson Davis. #CivilWar 3/5

Show threadTom - KB9ENSOct 18, 2024

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/18563009?contributionId=94a7c98c-54fd-477f-8041-fde27e7fbff1&objectPanel=transcription&objectPage=86

Anyway the interested reader can hit the link above and read the actual letter of July 4 and the one that follows on July 7, but it's basically dear President Davis... we had an oopsie.

I can imagine this text in a present day understated email. It was... bad mmk.

"It is believed that the enemy suffered severely in these operations, but our own loss has not been light. "

He goes on to describe some of the battle and names many of the dead rebel officers.
4/5

National Archives NextGen Catalog

The online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records.

Show threadTom - KB9ENSOct 18, 2024

This kind of first person nugget is why I take the time to transcribe this stuff. Definitely adding it to my own "how to deliver bad news" arsenal.

That letter was copied by typewriter in 1882 but the archive's OCR is not able to read it very well so having a digital and searchable copy allows folks to find this kind of thing.

The #Archives is FULL of untranscribed material. Dive in...

#CitizenArchivist

5/5