Scope and Content Note
The papers of James Jenkins Gillette (died 1881) span the years 1857-1884 and consist of correspondence, military papers, receipts, court records, and a docket book pertaining primarily to Gillette’s military service and his activities as claims commissioner. Letters and drafts of letters from Gillette to his family document his Civil War experiences as an engineer with the Seventy-First New York Militia Regiment, camp life and training, the Battle of First Bull Run, and life as a prisoner of war at Richmond, Virginia. Official correspondence concerns military supplies in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, the Battles of Second Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Atlanta. Also included is a small group of letters from Gillette’s friend, Tom Elliott, to Sally Maxwell, 1862-1863.
The addition consists of a letterbook, 19 February-22 July 1862, and a morning report book, 24 January-21 May 1862, kept by Gillette while serving with the Fourth Maryland Infantry, which later merged with the Third Maryland Infantry, and as acting commissary for the First Brigade, Second Division, Second Army Corps of Virginia.
Other papers relate to Gillette’s work as United States commissioner at Mobile, Alabama, particularly the proceedings of the chancery court in Mobile, the receivership of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the elections of 1878 and 1880, especially the selection of delegates to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1880. Also documented in the collection are Gillette’s experiences in the South prior to the Civil War and his work with the Freedmen’s Bureau at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama, 1865-1868.