Guide to The Herbert C Kay Collection Wyles Mss 218
Kay (Herbert C) Collection
Finding Aid by: Beaudry Allen
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Published: December 2017
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara 93106-9010
special@library.ucsb.edu
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Title: Herbert C Kay collection
Identifier/Call Number: Wyles Mss 218
Physical Description:
12 Linear Feet
(8 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1861-1886
Date (bulk): 1805-1979
Abstract: Collection of American Civil War Union and Confederate correspondence concerning military strategy and life during the period.
A portion of the collection includes an assorted group of correspondence relating to important nineteenth and twentieth century
figures in American and global history.
Language of Material: English and French
Physical Location: UCSB Library, Special Research Collections
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Accruals
Acquired by Special Research Collections in 2017 from the Kay Family Trust.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of Item], Herbert C Kay Collection, Wyles Mss 218. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara
Library.
Content Description
The collection contains letters from various authors, ephemera, and currency during the American Civil War. The majority of
the letters relating to the Civil War are addressed to or from high ranking military officers from both the Union and Confederate
State between 1861 to 1869. Many of the letters detail military strategy and specifics. Of particular note, a portion of the
collection consists of various correspondence relating to important national and international figures like Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi, Queen Victoria, Stephen King, Jay Gould, and John F. Kennedy.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into two series.
Series I. Civil War Correspondence is grouped by the subjects affiliation to either the Union and Confederacy chronologically.
Series II. Assorted Correspondence is arranged in chronological order.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Politics and war
Correspondence
Generals -- United States -- Correspondence
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Military personnel -- Union
Generals -- Confederate States of America
Series I. Civil War Correspondence
1861-1869
box 3
Letter regarding Battle of Shepherdstown
September 16
box 8
Fractional currency, Fifty cents
1863
box 3
Letter from Jay Cooke
1861 September 21
General
Jay Cooke was an American financier who helped finance the Union war effort during the American Civil War and the postwar
development of railroads in the United States. Cooke opened the private banking house of Jay Cooke and Company in Philadelphia,
which the state of Pennsylvania borrowed $3,000,000 to fund its war efforts.
box 3
Letter to General Randolph Barnes Marcy
1862 November
General
Randolph Barnes Marcy (1812–1887) was an officer, and later Inspector General, in the United States Army. He is known for
his frontier guidebook, the
Prairie Traveler (1859), based on his own experience of pioneering the West.
box 8
Letter from General William T. Sherman
1862 December 23
General
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 – 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general
in the Union Army during the American Civil War, known for his "hard war" military strategy of total war against the Confederacy.
box 3
Civil War correspondence- Union transcription and invoices
1862-1863
box 3
General O. O. (Oliver Otis) Howard engraving
1863 July
General
Engraving with printed facsimile signature.
box 3
Letter from Major General O. O. Howard to Major General Daniel Adams Butterfield
1863 July 1
General
Daniel Adams Butterfield (1831 – 1901) was an Union General in the American Civil War and Assistant U.S. Treasurer.
box 3
Letter from Brig. General Walter Chiles Whitaker to Major General George Henry Thomas
1863 November 24
box 2
Union Civil War Letters
1863
General
Letters sent to family by Wilbur M. Clifford.
box 3
Letter from Ulysses S. Grant to Major General Benjamin F. Butler
1864 July 27
box 3
Letter from Ulysses S. Grant to Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside
1864 October 17
box 3
Letter from General William T. Sherman
1869 May 25
box 8
Signed letter from Robert E. Lee, San Antonio, Texas
1860 September 15
General
A special order in secretarial hand and signed by Robert E Lee.
box 4
Letter from Wilcox Young, Charleston, South Carolina
1861 April 5
box 7
Quartermaster Virginia forces, reimbursement letter
1861 May 16
box 4
Letter from T.J. Jackson (Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson) to Colonel S. Bassett French
1862 March 28
box 4
Letters from T. J. Jackson to Mrs. Osborne
1862 September 29
General
A thnk you letter to Mrs. Osborne and mention Bunker Hill.
box 2
Confederate Civil War letters and transcripts
1862-1863
box 4
Letter to Duke of Somerset
1863 July 9
General
Letter selling autographs enclosed with the signatures of Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.
box 4
Letter from General James Longstreet to General D. H. (Daniel Harvey) Hill
1863 March 23
General
Both confederate generals and known personal friends.
box 4
Confederate Correspondence, copies of letters, transcriptions, invoices, and Confederate money
1863
General
Correspondence and transcripts collected in a booklet.
box 4
From General Joseph Wheeler to General Braxton Bragg
1864
General
Braxton Bragg (1817-1876) was a Confederate General. The letter contains a discussion of the enemy's strategy.
box 4
Robert E. Lee photograph and autograph
1864 June 15, 1869 March 20, 1994 September 19
General
Engraving with printed facsimile signature.
box 7
Confederate bond
1865 March 9
box 7
Letter signed by Admiral David Dixon Porter, engraving by U.S. Mississippi Squadron
1863 March 28
General
Letter issuing orders to go to Memphis, Tennessee.
box 4
Confederate dollar bills
circa 1860s
box 8
Letter to Major General D.H. (Daniel Harvey) Hill
undated
Series II. Assorted Correspondence
1805-1979
box 7
Letter from R. Morris to Cary and Tilghman, Baltimore, Maryland
1789 October 29
box 5
Letter "My Dear Lord," from Horatio Nelson to Lord Gardner
1805 April 19
box 5
Letter from Duke Wellington to Lady Salisbury
1813 August 3
box 7
Abstract of bonds for securing duties on goods
1817 April 2
box 7
Expense account of Lieutenant W.S. Rosecrans, Corps of Engineers
1847
box 5
Personal letter
1860 July 14
box 1
Bowdoin College Class of 1861
1861
General
A yearbook with photographs and signatures of Bowdoin College Class of 1861.
box 7
Letter about the Maddox Fleet
1868 March 8
box 5
Letter from Jay Gould to H.N. Smith, Erie Railway
1868 September 3
General
Jason "Jay" Gould (1836–1892) was a leading railroad developer and speculator during America's Gilded Age.
box 5
Letter to Colonel R.H. Ramsey
1869 April 19
box 5
Horace Greeley
1871 August 17
General
Horace Greeley (1811–1872) was the founder and editor of New York Tribune.
box 5
Letter from Military Division Headquarters of the Missouri, General P.H. Sheridan
1877 December 7
box 5
Letter from Charles George Gordon to Sir Richard Burton, Cairo, Egypt
1877 December 26
box 8
Letter from Lord Woseley to Sir Thomas[?] Kaken, War Office stamp
1885 February 6
box 5
Letter about Ezekial Clark
1886 June 18
box 7
Proclamation from Queen Victoria
circa 1800s
General
Proclamation from Queen Victoria granting Order of Saint Michael and Saint George to Percy Sanderson, Esquire.
box 5
Letter from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1900 May 30
General
Letter to Hermann Kallenbach from Gandhi thanking him for a donation.
box 6
Letter from the Transvaal Prime Minister's Office to H.R. Nicholson
1919 October 11
box 8
Monaco (French) stock certificate
1948 November 18
General
Societe Anonyme Monegasque stock certificate.
box 8
Letter from John F. Kennedy
circa 1950-1960s
General
Letter of inquiry.
box 5
Letter from Stephen King
1979 August 8
box 5
Letter to Minister of War
undated
General
Signed by Napoléon Bonaparte.
box 8
Le Comite De Salut Public, signed by Lazare Carnot
undated
General
Committee of Public Safety of the National Convention to the Administration for Portable Firearms.
box 5
Letter about the Duke of Wellington
undated
