Letters of Rev. John W. Alvord

This collection contains the private letters written by the Rev. John W. Alvord, a Civil War Army Chaplain and Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of Schools and Finance. Rev. Alvord was a significant historical figure best known for his Letters from the South, Relating to the Condition of Freedmen, Addressed to Major General 0. 0. Howard, published in 1870. The private, previously unpublished letters in this collection cover Alvord's years as a field chaplain who traveled with the Army of the Potomac during its 1861-64 Virginia campaigns and his subsequent term as General Superintendent of Education for the Freedmen's Bureau, ca. 1865-68.