The Source

Milestone Documents

By Michael K. Shaffer · Originally published July 2022 · p. 18

Milestone Documents homepage. Earlier this year, the National Archives assembled a collection of their most requested items into a gathering entitled Milestone Documents. Civil War researchers will want to begin their quest at https://www.archives.gov/ milestone-documents/list#civilwar-and-reconstruction. On the ‘Civil War and Reconstruction’ page, users can view the following original papers: Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter, Homestead Act, the Pacific Railway Act, Morrill Act, Emancipation Proclamation, War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops, the Wade-Davis Bill, Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, and the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery. In addition, other documents from the period include the check for the purchase of Alaska, the

Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, and instructor, who remains a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at [email protected] or request speaking engagements at www.civilwarhistorian. net. Follow Michael on Facebook, www.facebook.com/ michael.k.shaffer, and on Twitter @michaelkshaffer.

Fort Laramie Treaty, the 14th and 15th Amendments, and an Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park. Selecting any of these original documents will present a new Surrender document. window containing a synopsis of the event, a copy of the original document, and a transcription. For this exercise, a review of the ‘Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (1865)’ will serve as a demonstration. The following image depicts the synopsis and a small view of the original document. Clicking on the image of the document will allow one to download it for closer examination. A transcription, offering quick perusal of the contents, appears at the bottom of the document page. Spend some time exploring the entire Milestone Documents collection, and continued good luck in researching the American Civil War! Synopsis of surrender terms.

Transcription of surrender terms.