Annie Oakley offered fifty sharpshooters, arms included

The file is one letter. The National Archives dates it April 5, 1898, and keeps it in Letters Received of the Adjutant General's Office. That office, in the catalog, is the War Department office that ran from 1821 to April 28, 1904. The parent group is Record Group 94, Records of the Adjutant General's Office. The item is National Archives Identifier 300369. Access is unrestricted. Use is unrestricted.

The catalog states the offer in the title of the record. Annie Oakley wrote President William McKinley that she would furnish a company of fifty lady American sharpshooters. They would provide their own arms and ammunition. The condition in the title is plain: should war break out with Spain.

She wrote it on her show letterhead. The printed lines, which are the part a reader can take without guessing at the handwriting, call her "America's Representative Lady Shot." They say that for eleven years she was next to Buffalo Bill, the attraction with the Wild West. They list American exhibitions in London in 1887, the Paris Exhibition in 1889, a horticultural exhibition in London in 1892, and the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. They say she had appeared before the royalty and nobility of Europe, including "their R. H. the Prince and Princess of Wales," before whom she had given exhibitions. A line at the top of the sheet reads "A SUCCESS IN ALL COUNTRIES."

The catalog description does not record an answer. It records that the letter was received.

The images and a PDF of the letter are on the catalog record: National Archives Identifier 300369.