Fire destroyed the office of the War Department and all its files in 1800, and for decades historians believed that the collection, and the window it provided into the workings of the early federal government, was lost forever. Thanks to a decade-long effort to retrieve copies of the files scattered in archives across the country, the collection has been reconstituted and is offered here as a fully-searchable digital database. Learn more about the restoration of the collection.
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Military Response to Shays’ Rebellion
Letter from Henry Knox to Gouverneur Morris
Secretary of War Henry Knox tells Philadelphia lawyer Governeur Morris of the actions of General Sheppard and General Lincoln’s forces as they sought to confront the insurgents during Shays’ Rebellion. “The insurgents were mustering in this neighborhood and had collected 1500, as was conjectured.”