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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], "The 24th Corps" Manuscript, c. 1865, Ms2023-063, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
"The 24th Corps" Manuscript was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in October 2021.
The processing, arrangement, and description of "The 24th Corps" Manuscript was completed in June 2023. Additional description was completed in March 2024.
The Union Army's Army of the James was created in April 1864. In December, the Army of the James reorganized into two units with the white troops becoming the 24th Corps and the Black troops forming the 25th Corps. The 25th Corps were among the first Union troops to enter Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865, while the 24th Corps were at Appommattox, where General Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9.
General Edward O. C. Ord (1818-1883) was a military officer for the United States Army after his graduation from West Point. During the Mexican-American War, he was stationed with William T. Sherman building forts in California. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ord was sent to Virginia where he led many successful military campaigns against the Confederacy. Ord's leadership of the 24th Corps was key to the conclusion of the war when Lee surrendered in Appomattox.
Thomas G. Welles (1846-1892) was the son of Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy during the American Civil War, and his wife Mary Jane Hale Welles. Welles served as the assistant to General Edward O. C. Ord, the commander of the Army of the James. According to Duke University, he also served as an attorney in Hartford, Connecticut.
External sources:
Peter Luebke, "Army of the James" (December 7, 2020), in
"Edward Otho C. Ord (1818–1883)" (September 8, 2020), in
"Thomas Glastonbury Welles", findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14626004/thomas-glastonbury-welles, accessed on June 28, 2023.
Thomas Glastonbury Welles, "Letters, 1866-1869," David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE002440974, accessed on March 18, 2024.
This manuscript entitled "The 24th Corps" was likely written by General Edward O. C. Ord and his assistant Lieutenant Colonel Thomas G. Welles and accounts the troop movements of the 24th Corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The primary focus is the leadership of Ord as he led the Army of the James to Appomattox, where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant in 1865. The 24th Corps was formed in 1864 after the Army of the James separated white and Black troops into two units, the 24th and 25th Corps respectively, and the manuscript discusses this. The writing of the manuscript is believed to be Welles's with edits believed to have been made by Ord.
Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives also has the William Burgess Letter, Ms1989-050, which discusses General Edward Ord, and
See the General Edward O. C. Ord entry at the SNAC Cooperative for more archival resources related to Ord at other institutions.
See the Thomas Glastonbury Welles Letters, 1866-1869, at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
The guide to "The 24th Corps" Manuscript by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (