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Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [folder], Henry M. Lazelle Letter, 1911, Ms2023-109, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Source of Acquisition

The Henry M. Lazelle Letter was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in November 2017.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Henry M. Lazelle Letter was completed in September 2023.

Biographical Note

Henry Martyn Lazelle was born on September 8, 1832, in Enfield, Massachusetts. After graduating from U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1855, Lazelle served as an officer in the United States and Union Armies from 1855 to 1894. During the American Civil War, Lazelle was taken as a prisoner of war on May 8, 1861, and held until July 28, 1862. Lazelle then served as the Assistant Commissary of Prisoners of War in Washington, D. C. From October 1863 to October 1864, Lazelle served as the Colonel of the 16th New York Volunteer Calvary.

Lazelle held several posts following the war, including several operations against Native peoples and as Commandant of Cadets at West Point from 1869 to 1882. Lazelle also oversaw the publication of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion in 1887. He began farming in Virginia in 1894, published several books and articles over the decades, and retired from the army as Brigadier General in 1904. Lazelle passed away on July 21st, 1917, in Quebec, Canada.

Sources:

Texas State Historical Association, "Lazelle, Henry Martyn," Handbook of Texas Online, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/lazelle-henry-martyn , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

Wilson, James Grant, and John Fiske, eds., Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. III: Grinnell-Lockwood, p. 645 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888), available online from HathiTrust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004386047 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

Scope and Content

This collection contains a letter authored by Henry M. Lazelle from Georgeville, Quebec, Canada, on August 31, 1911. Lazelle wrote this letter in response to an earlier letter from a "Mr. Norris." Lazelle uses the letter to tell Mr. Norris about several things that he learned while he oversaw the publication of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion, about the American Civil War. Also included in this collection is a typed transcript of the letter.

Related Material

The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion are available online from HathiTrust.

Learn more about Henry M. Lazelle and othe places that have collections at the SNAC Cooperative.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the Henry M. Lazelle Letter by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).