DOCUMENTARY DATA
By Bertha E. Josephson
During the first two months of the
current year the Depart-
ment of Documents has been devoting as
much time as possible
to an inventory and organization of
numerous heterogenous and
individual items. Because these
materials do not belong to any
definite collections they have hitherto
been neglected, yet many
of them are of considerable importance
and value. They are now
being sorted and a card catalogue with
name and subject cross-
references is being prepared so that
they will be instantly available
for research. When the inventorying is
completed, the items will
be classified and arranged according to
their respective categories.
Nearly 300 items have been inventoried
thus far and some 1100
cross-reference cards have been prepared
for these.
Most interesting discovery in the
process of inventorying is
the letter written by the rebel cavalry
raider, Brigadier General
John H. Morgan, from his cell in the
Ohio Penitentiary at Co-
lumbus, Sept. 21, 1863, in behalf of
John H. Null, Union private
in Co. H, 120th Ohio. The letter
recommends that should said
Null ever be captured by the
Confederates he should be treated
"in the kindest manner" as he
was Morgan's guard at the prison
and treated his officers and himself
"with great courtesy and
kindness." The record shows that
Null was captured less than
8 months later near Snaggy Point on the
Red River in Louisiana,
but was paroled 7 weeks after that by
the Southerners. Evidently
the letter had proved helpful.
Another Civil War item is an election
ballot of the Republican
ticket voted in 1860 at Hannibal,
Missouri, by T. D. McGillicudy,
who comments on the margin, "at a
time and place when it was
worth one's very life to vote
Republican." Then there are five
certificates of freedom for Negroes in
Virginia: one from Prince
Edward County in 1821 for Robin Evans,
and the other four for
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