Lawrence F. Bower began about 1889 a small collection of autographs, specializing in those of men who had held naval or military commissions (particularly rear-admirals), during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. He wrote personally to many of the retired Civil War officers who were living in the last decade of the nineteenth century, requesting their autographs, and, in addition, collected a few letters of historical value. Judging from the contents of the answers to these requests, Mr. Bower was only a boy at the time.

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