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Collection Reference Number GLC05485.03
From Archive Folder Unassociated Civil War Documents 1863 
Title Ulysses S. Grant to Abraham Lincoln regarding a report from John Eaton discussing African Americans in his department
Date 11 June 1863
Author Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) (1822-1885)  
Additional authors Clark, S. H. (fl. 1863)
Recipient Lincoln, Abraham  
Document Type Correspondence
Content Description True copy of a letter from General Grant to President Lincoln, written one week after the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi to Grant. Grant encloses a report (not included) created by General John Eaton discussing African Americans within his department. States after discovering "that negroes were crossing into our lines in great numbers, and receiving kind or abusive treatment, according to the peculiar views of the troops they first came in contact with, and not being able to give that personal attention to their care and [use], the matter demanded, I determined to appoint a General Superintendent over the whole subject and give him such assistants as the duties assigned him might require. Mr Eaton was selected for this position." Reports that Eaton's "labors in his undertaking have been unremitting and skilful, and I fear, in many instances, very trying. That he has been of very great service to the blacks in having them provided for, when otherwise they would have been neglected, and to the Government in finding employment for the negro... " Sends the report to Lincoln's notice, especially the part on "government of the contrabands," noting that a department commander is not competent to make such decisions. Copied by S. H. Clark, 64th United States Colored Infantry, Assistant to the Superintendent of Freedmen (Eaton). Docketed in pencil.
Subjects Union General  Union Forces  President  Civil War  Military History  African American History  African American Troops  Freemen  Contrabands  Refugees  
People Clark, S. H. (fl. 1863)  Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) (1822-1885)  Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865)  Eaton, John (1829-1906)  
Place written Vicksburg, Mississippi
Theme The American Civil War; African Americans; The Presidency; Government & Politics
Sub-collection Papers and Images of the American Civil War
Copyright The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Module Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945