The Winning of the West, Volume One | Page 2

from B. Lincoln, Secretary at War.
No. 150. Vol. 1. Letters of H. Knox, Secretary at War.
No. 150. Vol. 2. Letters of H. Knox, Secretary at War.
No. 150. Vol. 3. Letters of H. Knox, Secretary at War.
No. 152. Vol. 11. Letters of General Washington.
No. 163. Letters of Generals Clinton, Nixon, Nicola, Morgan, Harmar,
Muhlenburg.
No. 169. Vol. 9. Washington's Letters.
No. 180. Reports of Secretary of Congress.
Besides these numbered volumes, the State Department contains others,
such as Washington's letter-book, marked War Department 1792, '3, '4,
'5. There are also a series of numbered volumes of "Letters to
Washington," Nos. 33 and 49 containing reports from Geo. Rogers
Clark. The Jefferson papers, which are likewise preserved here, are
bound in several series, each containing a number of volumes. The
Madison and Monroe papers, also kept here, are not yet bound; I quote
them as the Madison MSS. and the Monroe MSS.
My thanks are due to Mr. W. C. Hamilton, Asst. Librarian, for giving
me every facility to examine the material.
At Nashville, Tennessee, I had access to a mass of original matter in the
shape of files of old newspapers, of unpublished letters, diaries, reports,
and other manuscripts. I was given every opportunity to examine these
at my leisure, and indeed to take such as were most valuable to my own
home. For this my thanks are especially due to Judge John M. Lea, to
whom, as well as to my many other friends in Nashville, I shall always
feel under a debt on account of the unfailing courtesy with which I was
treated. I must express my particular acknowledgments to Mr. Lemuel
R. Campbell. The Nashville manuscripts, etc. of which I have made
most use are the following:
* * * * *
The Robertson MSS., comprising two large volumes, entitled the
"Correspondence, etc., of Gen'l James Robertson," from 1781 to 1814.

They belong to the library of Nashville University; I had some
difficulty in finding the second volume but finally succeeded.
The Campbell MSS., consisting of letters and memoranda to and from
different members of the Campbell family who were prominent in the
Revolution; dealing for the most part with Lord Dunmore's war, the
Cherokee wars, the battle of King's Mountain, land speculations, etc.
They are in the possession of Mr. Lemuel R. Campbell, who most
kindly had copies of all the important ones sent me, at great personal
trouble.
Some of the Sevier and Jackson papers, the original MS. diaries of
Donelson on the famous voyage down the Tennessee and up the
Cumberland, and of Benj. Hawkins while surveying the Tennessee
boundary, memoranda of Thos. Washington, Overton and Dunham, the
earliest files of the Knoxville _Gazette_, from 1791 to 1795, etc. These
are all in the library of the Tennessee Historical Society.
For original matter connected with Kentucky, I am greatly indebted to
Col. Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville, the founder of the "Filson Club,"
which has done such admirable historical work of late years. He
allowed me to work at my leisure in his library, the most complete in
the world on all subjects connected with Kentucky history. Among
other matter, he possesses the Shelby MSS., containing a number of
letters to and from, and a dictated autobiography of, Isaac Shelby; MS.
journals of Rev. James Smith, during two tours in the western country
in 1785 and '95; early files of the "Kentucke _Gazette_"; books owned
by the early settlers; papers of Boon, and George Rogers Clark; MS.
notes on Kentucky by George Bradford, who settled there in 1779; MS.
copy of the record book of Col. John Todd, the first governor of the
Illinois country after Clark's conquest; the McAfee MSS., consisting of
an Account of the First Settlement of Salt River, the Autobiography of
Robert McAfee, and a Brief Memorandum of the Civil and Natural
History of Kentucky; MS. autobiography of Rev. William Hickman,
who visited Kentucky in 1776, etc., etc.
I am also under great obligations to Col. John Mason Brown of
Louisville, another member of the Filson Club, for assistance rendered
me; particularly for having sent me six bound volumes of MSS.,
containing the correspondence of the Spanish Minister Gardoqui,
copied from the Spanish archives.

At Lexington I had access to the Breckenridge MSS., through the
kindness of Mr. Ethelbert D. Warfield; and to the Clay MSS. through
the kindness of Miss Lucretia Hart Clay. I am particularly indebted to
Miss Clay for her courtesy in sending me many of the most valuable
old Hart and Benton letters, depositions, accounts, and the like.
The Blount MSS. were sent to me from California by the Hon. W. D.
Stephens of Los Angeles, although I was not personally known to him;
an instance of courtesy and generosity, in return for which