Governor: Richard James Oglesby (1st term) Correspondence, January 9, 1865-January 11, 1869 | Illinois State Archives

Scope and Contents: Correspondence concerns problems arising from the Civil War such as Confederate cotton in Indian territory, slavery and abolition, efforts to provide relief for destitute "colored" people, soldiers' pay, deserters, military camps and hospitals, arms borrowed from the federal government, battlefield burials, Antietam and Gettysburg National Cemeteries, the Lincoln Monument, the Illinois Soldiers' Orphans' Home, voting by "draft sneaks," victory celebrations, state war debts, and the Oak Ridge Cemetery Guard. Other major topics include immigration; the state census; capital punishment; coal mine safety; railroads; Mississippi River bridges, dikes, walls, and channels; taxation; turnpikes; insurance and election laws; municipal incorporation; police; state institutions; surplus labor and Western grainfields; swamp lands; veterinary hospitals; and entomology. Correspondents include private citizens and local, state, and national officials.