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Guide to the George N. Macy / Amasa L. Lincoln Papers
Wyles Mss 35
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Table of contents
Title: George N. Macy / Amasa L. Lincoln Papers,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1779-1899
Date (bulk): (bulk 1850s-1880s)
Collection Number: Wyles Mss 35
Creator:
Macy (George N.) / Lincoln (Amasa L.)
Extent:
.4 linear feet
(1 document box)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Physical Location: Del Sur
Language:
English.
None.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
George N. Macy / Amasa L. Lincoln Papers. Wyles Mss 35. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of
California, Santa Barbara.
Purchase, 1978.
George N. Macy left his home in Nantucket, Massachusetts, to serve as an officer in the Union Army of the Potomac's Twentieth
Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Co. I. He survived the war, despite being wounded several times, even losing
his left hand in the battle of Gettysburg, and eventually attained the rank of Brevet Major General.
Known as the "Harvard Regiment" due to the large number of Harvard graduates among its officers, the 20th Massachusetts played
a major role in many of the most important battles of the Civil War, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,
and Gettysburg, and was even present for General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The Harvard Regiment also suffered
the greatest number of casualties of any Massachusetts regiment, and ranked fifth in the Union Army overall. Another of its
officers, Oliver Wendell Holmes, went on to become a justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Throughout the war, George Macy maintained a correspondence with his friend Amasa Lyman Lincoln, a Boston banker. Lincoln
kept these letters, as well as a scrapbook containing clippings relating to the 20th Massachusetts and other contemporary
events. After the end of the Civil War, Amasa Lincoln and his family moved to Santa Barbara, where they established a hotel
they called the Lincoln House. Today known as the Upham Victorian Hotel & Cottage Gardens, it is the oldest continuously operating
hostelry in Southern California.
Some related printed sources include:
Abbott, Henry Livermore.
Fallen Leaves: The Civil War Letters of Major Henry Livermore Abbott (1991).
Bruce, George Anson.
The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865 (1906).
Katcher, Philip R. N.
Lincoln's Unsung Heroes (1997)
Massachusetts Adjutant General's Office.
Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War (1931).
Miller, Richard F., and Robert F. Mooney.
The Civil War: The Nantucket Experience (1994).
Roster of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865 (1997- ). Volumes 2-3 include Massachusetts.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains correspondence, a photo album, a scrapbook, and other Civil War materials, mainly relating to the
Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The correspondence, 1861-1865, is from Harvard graduate and Brevet
Major General George N. Macy to his friend, Boston banker Amasa Lyman Lincoln. Lincoln later moved to Santa Barbara and established
the Lincoln House hotel. The photograph album contains images of Macy and Lincoln, as well as others with surnames of Austin,
Bainbridge, Bancroft, Barnes, Bradford, Bradley, Canfield, Cartright, Davis, Hayden, Hunt, Putnam, Seaver, Smyth, and Sturgis.
The scrapbook includes a five dollar note dated 1779 and a printed copy of a proclamation by Thomas Jefferson (
National Intelligencer Extra, July 2, 1807).