Joel Gardner collections of war memorabilia and materials related to the University of Virginia

Biographical information about subjects in this collection:

Jonathan Meigs (1740-1823), a colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was one of the settlers of the Northwest Territory in what is now the state of Ohio. He later served the federal government as an Indian agent working with the Cherokee in southeastern Tennessee. He also served under Colonel Benedict Arnold and kept a journal of their expedition. One of his most important achievements during the Revolutionary War was leading the Meigs Raid against the British forces in Sag Harbor, New York, in May 1777. As an acting commander of the 1st Connecticut Brigade, he put down an incipient mutiny and received the written thanks of General George Washington.

After the Revolution, Meigs was appointed surveyor of the Ohio Company of Associates. In April 1788, at age 47, he was one of a party of pioneers to the Northwest Territory from New England. They reached the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, where he participated in the founding of Marietta, Ohio. Subsequently, he entered political life, being appointed as a territorial judge

In 1801, Meigs went to Tennessee to fill the combined position of US Indian agent to the Cherokee Nation and military agent for the United States War Department. Charles R. Hicks, a European and bilingual Cherokee, worked as his interpreter for some time. Hicks later became a chief of the Cherokee.Meigs promoted the well-being of the Cherokee, defended their rights in treaty negotiations, and encouraged Cherokee efforts to establish a republican form of government.

The Partisan Ranger Act was passed on April 21, 1862 by the Confederate Congress. It was intended as a stimulus for recruitment of irregulars for service into the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. The Confederate leadership, like the Union leadership, later opposed the use of unconventional warfare out of fear the lack of discipline among rival guerrilla groups could spiral out of control. On February 17, 1864, the law was repealed after pressure from General Robert E. Lee and other Confederate regulars.

HITLER & CHAMBERLAIN, 1938. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (left) photographed with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler at Godesberg, Germany, 22-23 September 1938, where they discussed possibilities for a peaceful resolution to the crisis over the Sudetenland involving Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident. He later worked as a helicopter pilot for KNBC in Los Angeles and died in a 1977 helicopter crash.