Scope and Content Note
The papers of Sylvanus Cadwallader (born 1825 or 1826) consist primarily of correspondence and telegrams spanning the years 1818-1904, with the bulk of the material dating between 1862-1898. The correspondence is supplemented by newspaper clippings, military passes, printed material, invitations, and commissions.
Cadwallader, as a journalist during the Civil War years, was closely associated with General Ulysses S. Grant and his staff. He was with Grant during the Mississippi and Tennessee operations as a correspondent of the Chicago Times, and later, during the advance on Richmond, Cadwallader accompanied Grant as a representative of the New York Herald. He was present at the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. A contemporary drawing of the McLean house made by Cadwallader is in the collection. Credited with being one of the most capable of the wartime correspondents, Cadwallader received a letter from Grant on September 23, 1864, congratulating him for his journalistic ability and his factual reporting.
After the war Cadwallader became a state official in Wisconsin, later moved to Missouri, and finally removed to California where he wrote of his wartime experiences. His reminiscences were edited by Benjamin P. Thomas and published under the title Three Years with Grant.
There are two types of correspondence in the collection, family and general. The family correspondence, spans the years 1849-1897, with the bulk of the letters dated in the 1860s. Included are letters to his wife, Mary Isabella Paul Cadwallader, his daughter, and close personal friends. General correspondence dates from 1862 to 1904, but relates principally to the 1880s and 1890s. Correspondents in this group include Orville Elias Babcock, Adam Badeau, Elias Boudinot, Theodore S. Bower, Benjamin F. Butler, William E. Chandler, Frederic T. Dent, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Dent Grant, Ulysses S. Grant, George Gordon Meade, George H. Pendleton, Horace Porter, Edwin McMasters Stanton, William T. Sherman, and James Harrison Wilson. Still other correspondents are newsman such as James Gordon Bennett, George William Curtis, Charles A. Dana, Frederic Hudson, Joseph B. McCullagh, Horace Rublee, and George Alfred Townsend.
Letters and telegrams from the Civil War period primarily concern Cadwallader's newspaper activities, his travels as a war correspondent, and the death of his daughter in Wisconsin. There is also a file of telegrams for the period September-October 1864, relating to Cadwallader's attempt to secure a substitute and thereby prevent being drafted into the army.
Letters from 1880s and 1890s concern the career of General John A. Rawlins, General Grant's major aide-de-camp, and the whereabouts of his personal papers. Most of these letters are from James Harrison Wilson.
Also in the collection are files on Cadwallader's masonic activities, 1849-1890; stock certificates, 1865-1867; appointments to office in Wisconsin 1859-1863; military passes 1862-1865; and invitations, cards, and newspaper clippings.
Papers that may have been collected by Cadwallader include an 1833 letter from Nathaniel Macon to Samuel Price Carson and two letters from Spencer Roane, one to Henry Clay, 1820, the other to Thomas Richie, undated.