Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edwin McMasters Stanton (1814-1869) span the years 1818-1921, with the bulk of the material originating between 1862 and 1870. The collections consists of correspondence, letterbooks, a draft of the annual report of the secretary of war for 1863, and the March 1862 proceedings of the War Board. Interspersed among the bound correspondence, which makes up most of the collection, are battle maps, reports, charts, and printed matter. There is also a miscellany file and a few oversize items.
The papers focus chiefly on Stanton's tenure as secretary of war under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and stress his role in the Union victory over the Confederacy and the first phase of Reconstruction. As revealed by his extensive correspondence, both the small and large tasks of winning the war came frequently within Stanton's purview. In addition to information on the reorganization of the War Department immediately after his arrival, there are logistic reports from various state and departmental command posts, communications about army morale and discipline, and orders concerning the exchange of prisoners, the use of formerly enslaved people as soldiers, and the policies to be employed in occupied territories. The papers also shed light on Stanton's relationship with Lincoln, Johnson, and the radical wing of the Republican Party. Other topics include Lincoln's assassination and Stanton's evaluation of the various generals under the national government's command. The major portion of the collection ends with letters of condolence to Stanton's wife on his death in 1869.
The Addition consists of correspondence, chiefly with Stanton's mother and sister, Lucy Norman Stanton and Oella Stanton Tappan Wright, and a diary of Stanton's niece, Nancy Tappan.
Correspondents in these papers include George Bancroft, Henry Ward Beecher, James Buchanan, Benjamin F. Butler, Simon Cameron, Salmon P. Chase, Roscoe Conkling, Charles A. Dana, Thomas Ewing, William Pitt Fessenden, William Lloyd Garrison, Ulysses S. Grant, John Hay, Andrew Johnson, Reverdy Johnson, Francis Lieber, Abraham Lincoln, George Brinton McClellan, Winfield Scott, William Henry Seward, Philip Henry Sheridan, William T. Sherman, Thaddeus Stevens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Sumner, Benjamin Tappan, Lyman Trumbull, and Gideon Welles.