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<b>Captured at the fall of Fort Donelson, Tennessee in February 1862


Kentucky Cavalry Commander under General Nathan Bedford Forrest


He escaped from capture at Red Hill, Alabama in January 1865, by his quick thinking and daring action and shooting a Yankee sergeant</b>


(1836-1907) He was born in what is now Lyon County, Kentucky, to a wealthy plantation family, and was the grandson of Congressman Matthew Lyon. He graduated in the West Point class of 1856, and was assigned to the 2nd U.S. Artillery Regiment on duty at Fort Myers during the Third Seminole War. After hostilities with the Seminoles ended, Lyon was transferred to the 3rd U.S. Artillery and sent to Fort Yuma in California. The following year he was ordered to the Washington Territory, where he took part in two battles with local Indian tribes. When the War Between the States erupted in April 1861, Lyon resigned his commission in the U.S. Army, and threw his lot in with the Confederacy. He soon after raised Company F, of the 3rd Kentucky Infantry, which later became part of the 1st Kentucky Artillery. Lyon equipped the unit, which initially was known as "Lyon's Battery," later "Cobb's Battery." In January 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 8th Kentucky Infantry, and his regiment was part of the garrison at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. After fighting off three attacks by the Union Army, the fort finally surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, and Lyon was among those captured. He was sent as a prisoner of war, first to Camp Morton at Indianapolis, and then to Camp Chase, Ohio. He and other captured officers were later sent to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, where he was finally exchanged in September, 1862. His regiment was reorganized and now re-enlisted for three years, with Lyon appointed as its colonel. He fought in the forces of General Earl Van Dorn, and then General John C. Pemberton during the Vicksburg Campaign. He and 250 of his men managed to avoid surrendering to General Grant, and he led them to Jackson, Mississippi, where they joined the Confederate forces there. Later, General Braxton Bragg appointed him as commander of two cavalry regiments under General Joseph Wheeler, and he later served under General James Longstreet during the Siege of Knoxville. Following the Battle of Chattanooga, Lyon was placed in charge of General Bragg's artillery, saving them from capture during his subsequent retreat. He returned to commanding cavalry in 1864, this time in Mississippi as a brigadier general under General Nathan Bedford Forrest. In December 1864, he led 800 Kentucky cavalrymen on a raid into Tennessee and western Kentucky both to enforce Confederate draft laws, and to draw Union troops away from General John Bell Hood's Nashville campaign. His men burned seven county courthouses that were being used to house Union troops, including those at Princeton, Marion and Hopkinsville. He retreated south after the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Nashville to rejoin General Forrest in Mississippi. In January 1865, General Lyon was surprised while sleeping in a private home in Red Hill, Alabama, by a detachment of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry. After he was captured, he shot and killed the Union sergeant who captured him, Arthur Lyon, by asking to retrieve his clothes and grabbing a hidden pistol, he escaped in his nightgown. When the war ended, Lyon refused to surrender and he accompanied Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris into Mexico with the intention of joining up with the forces of Emperor Maximilian.  He was a civil engineer in Mexico for nearly a year before finally returning to his home in Eddyville, Kentucky, where he resumed farming and opened a prosperous mercantile business. He also served as state prison commissioner, primarily responsible for what is now the Kentucky State Penitentiary located in his hometown of Eddyville. His initials are still inscribed over the Kentucky State Penitentiary's front gate. Lyon died on April 25, 1907, at his home in Lyon County, Kentucky.


<u>Card Signature With Rank</u>: Superb card signature in ink, H.B. Lyon, Brigadier General, Comdg. Kentucky Brigade, Forrest Cavalry, C.S.A. This 3 3/4 x 2 1/2 card is tipped to a larger card that measures, 4 1/2 x 3 1/4. Light wrinkle at center. Bold and neatly written autograph. Extremely desirable and very scarce in this format.        


<b>Autograph Letter Signed written to General Winfield S. Hancock


Sickles murdered Philip Barton Key II across the street from the White House!


Severely wounded at Gettysburg resulting in the amputation of his leg


Medal of Honor Recipient for heroism at the Battle of Gettysburg


United States Congressman & New York State Senator</b>


(1819-1914) Born in New York City, he was a controversial New York State senator and congressman. He first achieved national notoriety in 1859 when he shot down, in the shadows of the White House, his young wife's lover, Philip Barton Key, II, who was the son of the author of our national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner," Francis Scott Key. Sickles lawyer during the lurid trial was none other than Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln's future Secretary of War, who got him off. Sickles was acquitted after using "temporary insanity" as a legal defense for the first time in United States history. During the Civil War, Sickles served as a brigade, division, and corps commander, and fought in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, at Antietam, and Fredericksburg. At the Battle of Gettysburg, he commanded the 3rd Corps, of the Army of the Potomac, and was severely wounded on July 2, 1863, from cannon fire, the result being the amputation of his right leg. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle of Gettysburg. He saw no further field service as a result of his amputation. After the war, Sickles was appointed as a commander for military districts in the South during the Reconstruction period. He also served as U.S. Minister to Spain, 1869-74, under President Ulysses S. Grant. He was very instrumental in forming the Gettysburg National Military Park, and preserving the battlefield for posterity. Sickles political career was that of a New York State Senator, 1856-57; U.S. Congressman, 1857-61; and U.S. Congressman, 1893-95. He died on May 3, 1914, in New York City, at the age of 94. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


<u>Autograph Letter Signed</u>: 2 pages, 5 x 8, in ink, written to General Winfield S. Hancock.


14 Fifth Ave.

Tuesday


Dear General,


Col. F. [?] did not see my note soon enough after the receipt of yours to call upon you on Monday. The Vicomte de Bondy is also here and has a letter to you from an old comrade the Duc de Chatres- now as you know is Colonel Commanding a regiment of cavalry. If you will afford an hour to me now to receive these polite men they will call together and pay their respects to you. 


Sincerely,

D.E. Sickles


To Maj. Genl. W.S. Hancock, U.S. Army


There is a docket written on the reverse in ink in another hand as follows:


14 5th Av.

Sept. 14, 1880


Genl. D. Sickles


Relative to his call with Col. Faverol [?] & the Viscomte de Bondy-


Typical fold wear. Boldly written. Very fine letter written between two Gettysburg generals who were both very severely wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2nd & 3rd, 1863.


<u>Trivia</u>: The word "Comte" is French for the title "Count."  

 


<b>1865 Autograph Endorsement Signed


Recommendation for captain of the 20th N.Y.S.M.</b>


(1833-99) Born in New York, he was appointed to West Point, and graduated in 1855, and assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery who he fought with in the Third Seminole Indian War. When the Civil War began, Turner was quickly promoted to captain, and he served on the staff of General David Hunter, first in Kansas, then in the Department of the South where he rendered valuable services at the battle of Fort Pulaski, Ga. On June 13, 1863, Turner was appointed chief of staff in the Department of the South under General Quincy A. Gillmore, and participated in the operations against Charleston, South Carolina. On September 6, 1863, he was awarded a brevet promotion to Major, U.S. Army for his service at Battery Wagner, where the gallant 54th Massachuseets Colored Regiment commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw led the assault. The following day he was appointed brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers. In May 1864, General Gillmore's 10th Corps was transferred to the Petersburg, Va., front and Turner continued as chief of staff through the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. On June 22, 1864, he received his first infantry command of the war at the head of the 2nd Division, 10th Corps. Turner and his division participated in the Siege of Petersburg, and during the winter of 1864-65, he served as chief of staff of the Army of the James. The defeat of the  Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley freed up available units in General Philip H. Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah to be sent to the Petersburg front and in March, General Turner assumed command of the Independent Division of reinforcements from the recently victorious Army of the Shenandoah. Despite its name, Turner's Independent Division was attached to the newly created 24th Corps under General John Gibbon. At the end of the Petersburg Campaign, Gibbon's corps was assigned the task of assaulting Forts Gregg and Whitworth. Turner's division was split between the two forts, sending one brigade against the lesser Fort Whitworth, while the other two joined General Robert S. Foster in the main attack against Fort Gregg. Turner received praise from his commanding officers for gallant services at Petersburg, and after the fall of the city, he participated in the forced march to Appomattox Courthouse, where he and other troops of the Army of the James directly intercepted General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Turner remained in command of the 24th Corps, and was responsible for overseeing occupied Virginia. He then commanded the District of Henrico, Virginia, including Richmond, the former Confederate capital, from June 9, 1865 until April 6, 1866, and the entire Department of Virginia, from April 7th until May 17th. Part of his responsibility in Virginia was re-establishing the local government and persuading it to take the responsibility for law enforcement as well as support of the unemployed persons both former Rebel soldiers and former slaves! This proved especially problematic, as Richmond's long-time mayor, Joseph C. Mayo used vagrancy laws against black persons, and the vast majority of those fed by soup kitchens were African Americans. Thus, General Turner ordered his men not to follow Mayo's orders until Governor Francis Pierpont replaced him with city council president David J. Saunders, who was also appointed head of the city run gasworks and waterworks. John W.Turner continued as major general in the U.S. Army until 1871, and commanded the purchasing depot and commissary in St. Louis, Missouri from October 31, 1866 to February 1871, and he resigned from the regular army on September 4, 1871. Upon retiring from the army, he settled in St. Louis, where he became a prominent citizen. He worked as a banker, civil engineer and served more than a decade as commissioner of streets and public works until his death. General Turner died in St. Louis, on April 8, 1899, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.


<u>1865 Autograph Endorsement Signed</u>: 7 1/2 x 9 1/2, in ink, with the endorsement by General Turner on the verso. The front page is a letter written by Brevet Major W.W. Beckwith, U.S.V. & Assistant Provost Marshal.


Office of the Provost Marshal

Head Quarters Dist. of Henrico

Richmond, Va., Dec. 16th, 1865


This is to certify that I am personally acquainted with Capt. Charles S. Parker, 20th N.Y.S.M. During my acquaintances with him his conduct as an officer in the army has been such as to merit the approval and praise of his superior officers. While the Regiment served under the orders of Brig. Genl. M.R. Patrick, Captain Parker's gentlemanly qualities were so well recognized as to induce his selection for the discharge of delicate and important duties.


W.W. Beckwith

Capt. 20th N.Y.S.M.

& Brevet Major U.S.V.

Asst. Pro. Marshal


The autograph endorsement signed by General Turner on the verso is as follows: 


Hd. Qrs. Dist. Henrico

Richmond, Va.

Dec. 18, 1865


The endorsement of Maj. Beckwith is cordially recommended.


Jno. W. Turner

Bvt. Maj. Genl.

Comdg.


Very fine. Excellent content and endorsement.  


<b>Famous for his American flag dispatch, "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot!" This became a clarion call in the North during the Civil War!


New York Secretary of State


United States Senator from New York


Governor of New York</b> 


(1798-1879) Born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, he joined the U.S. Army in 1813, and served until 1828.  In 1830, he was appointed by Governor Enos T. Throop as Adjutant General of the New York State Militia. Was New York Secretary of State, 1833-39, and served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1842, and was elected to the United States Senate, serving 1845-49. In 1853, Dix was president of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. He was Postmaster of New York City 1860-61. In 1861, President Buchanan appointed him U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and on January 29, 1861, he made his famous American flag dispatch to a treasury official in New Orleans, "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot!" Commissioned Major General by President Abraham Lincoln, on May 16, 1861, he was first on this list, thus outranking all other volunteer officers during the Civil War. At the beginning of the war he arrested six members of the Maryland General Assembly and prevented Maryland from seceding from the Union, which earned him President Lincoln's gratitude and praise. That winter, he commanded an organization known as "Dix's Command" within General George B. McClellan's Department of the Potomac. Dix commanded the Department of Virginia from June 1862 until July 1863, and the Department of the East from July 1863 until April 1865. On July 22, 1862, General Dix and Confederate General Daniel H. Hill made an agreement for the general exchange of prisoners between the Union and Confederate armies. This agreement became known as the "Dix-Hill Cartel." It established a scale of equivalents, where an officer would be exchanged for a fixed number of enlisted men, and also allowed for the parole of prisoners, who would undertake not to serve in a military capacity until officially exchanged. The cartel worked well for a while, but it ended up breaking down when Confederate officials insisted on treating black prisoners as fugitive slaves and returning them to their previous owners. He made an important and distinguished contribution to the Union cause when he suppressed the 1863 New York City draft riots. General Dix was active in the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, which was part of his department. He served as the chairman of the 1866 National Union Convention. He was U.S. Minister to France, 1866-69, and Governor of New York, 1873-74.


<u>War Date Autograph Letter Signed</u>:  1 page, 5 x 8, in ink, on imprinted letter sheet.


Head Quarters, Department of the East, New York City, 20 Feby 1864


Let us have no compromise with the authors of rebellion, who have cost the country half a million lives. When they are expelled, let us make peace on just terms with those, whom they have deceived, deprived, and oppressed. 


John A. Dix

Maj. Genl. 


Other than a tiny paper chip at the extreme upper right edge of the letter sheet, that does not affect any of the content, this letter is in very fine condition, and is bold and neatly written. Excellent patriotic content by General Dix.

Autograph, General Hylan B. Lyon $350.00

 

Autograph, General Daniel E. Sickles

 

Autograph, General John W. Turner $125.00

 

Autograph, General John A. Dix $250.00




<b>Autographed carte de visite


General-in-Chief of the U.S. Armies during the Civil War, 1861-62


Democratic Presidential Candidate that was defeated by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864


Governor of New Jersey


From the personal collection of Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin. Irwin has the distinct honor of being the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in U.S. military history by date of action, February 13, 1861</b> 


(1826-85) Hailed as the "Young Napoleon," McClellan was thought to have of the greatest military minds of his generation. He was born in Philadelphia, the son of a prominent surgeon, Dr. George McClellan, the founder of Jefferson Medical College. One of McClellan's great-grandfathers was General Samuel McClellan of Woodstock, Connecticut, a brigadier general who fought in the Revolutionary War. George Brinton McClellan graduated 2nd in his class of 59 cadets at West Point in 1846, where he was an energetic and ambitious cadet, deeply interested in strategic principles.  He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His closest friends at the Academy were southerners George Pickett, Dabney Maury, Cadmus Wilcox, and A.P. Hill. After graduation, he served with distinction in the Mexican War, as an engineering officer who was frequently subject to enemy fire, and was appointed a brevet first lieutenant for his services at Contreras, and Churubusco, and to captain for his service at Chapultepec. He performed reconnaissance missions for General Winfield Scott, a close friend of McClellan's father. McClellan's experiences in the Mexican War would shape his military and political life. He learned that flanking movements that were used by General Scott at Cerro Gordo are often better than frontal assaults, and the value of siege operations against Veracruz was another well learned lesson. He witnessed Scott's success in balancing political with military affairs, and his good relations with the civil population as he invaded, enforcing strict discipline on his soldiers to minimize damage to civilian property. In the fall of 1852, McClellan published a manual on bayonet tactics that he had translated from the original French. He also received an assignment to the Department of Texas, with orders to perform a survey of Texas rivers and harbors. In 1853, he participated in the Pacific Railroad surveys, ordered by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, to select an appropriate route for the planned transcontinental railroad. Because of his political connections and his mastery of French, McClellan received the assignment to be an official observer of the European armies in the Crimean War in 1855, as part of the Delafield Commission, led by Richard Delafield. Traveling widely, and interacting with the highest military commands and royal families, McClellan observed the siege of Sevastopol. Upon his return to the United States in 1856, he requested an assignment in Philadelphia to prepare his report, which contained a critical analysis of the siege and a lengthy description of the organization of the European armies. He also wrote a manual on cavalry tactics that was based on Russian cavalry regulations. Capitalizing on his experience with railroad assessment, he became chief engineer and vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad, and then president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, McClellan was appointed major general, and he played an important role in raising the Army of the Potomac, and proved to be a brilliant military organizer, administrator, and trainer of men, but as the war developed he proved to be an officer totally lacking in the essential skills and qualities of successful command of large forces in battle. He served as the Commanding General of the United States Army, 1861-62. General McClellan organized, and led the Union Army in the 1862 Virginia Peninsula campaign in southeastern Virginia which was the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater of the war with the capture of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., as their objective.  McClellan was somewhat successful against Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of General Robert E. Lee to command the Army of Northern Virginia turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a Union defeat, but Lee failed to destroy McClellan's Army of the Potomac, and suffered a bloody repulse at Malvern Hill, Va. General McClellan and President Abraham Lincoln developed a mutual distrust for each other, and McClellan was privately derisive of Lincoln. Lincoln on the other hand accused McClellan of being too cautious in the field and once asked "Little Mac" if he was not going to use his army if he (Lincoln could borrow it). Lincoln removed him from command in November 1862, in the aftermath of the bloody battle of Antietam, Md., fought on September 17, 1862, which was the single bloodiest day in U.S. military history. A contributing factor in this decision was McClellan's failure to pursue Lee's army following the tactically inconclusive, but strategic Union victory at the Battle of Antietam outside of little town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. McClellan went on to become the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1864 presidential election against the incumbent Republican President Lincoln. The effectiveness of his campaign was damaged when General McClellan repudiated his party's platform, which promised an end to the war, and negotiations with the Confederacy. Consequently he was beaten by Lincoln. He later served as the Governor of New Jersey from 1878-81. The concluding chapter of his political career was his strong support in 1884 for President Grover Cleveland. He was interested in the position of Secretary of War in Cleveland's cabinet, but did not get it.  McClellan devoted his final years to traveling and writing; producing his memoirs, 'McClellan's Own Story," in which he stridently defended his conduct during the war. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 58 at Orange, New Jersey. He was buried at Riverview Cemetery in Trenton.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 1/4 card. Standing view striking a Napoleonic pose while wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of major general. Superbly autographed in a bold ink hand on the front mount, Geo. B. McClellan. Back mark: Whipple, 96 Washington Street, Boston. McClellan was not camera shy, but this is a pose I have never encountered before. This image came from the Surgeon and General Bernard J.D. Irwin collection. Written in period ink in Irwin's hand on the reverse is, Major Genl. Geo. B. McClellan, Com'der in Chief U.S.A., Com'der Army of the Potomac. Died Oct. 29, 1885, at 59. This is image No. 37 in the Irwin collection as indicated on the reverse of the card. Excellent photograph. Very desirable autographed image of "Little Mac." Rare. 


<u>History of United States Surgeon & General Bernard John Dowling Irwin</u>


<i><b>Surgeon & General Irwin was the first United States Medal of Honor Recipient by date of action, February 13, 1861.</i></b>


(1830-1917) Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s.  He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and then served as a private in the New York Militia.  In 1850, he entered Castleton Medical College, and he later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.

  

He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, NYC, until his appointment as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in 1856.  He was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars, and was the first Medal of Honor recipient chronologically by date of action. His actions on February 13, 1861, at Apache Pass, Arizona, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded! The citation on his medal of honor reads; "Voluntarily took command of troops and attacked and defeated hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. Infantry, who, with 60 men, was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses, began the 100-mile march riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege."


Cochise, the Apache Indian chief, and a group of Apache warriors were accused of kidnapping a boy and a small group of U.S. soldiers in the Arizona Territory after the Army had captured Cochise's brother and nephews. When the Army refused to make a prisoner exchange, Cochise killed his prisoners. Soldiers then killed Cochise's brother and nephews.  2nd Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom led a group of 60 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry after Cochise but was soon besieged, prompting a rescue mission by the army. In response to the siege of Bascom and his men, Irwin set out on a rescue mission with 14 men of the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He was able to catch up with the Apaches at Apache Pass in present day Arizona. He strategically placed his small unit around Cochise and his men, tricking the Apache leader into thinking that he had a much larger army with him. The Apaches fled and Bascom and his men were saved. Bascom and his men joined Irwin and together they were able to track Cochise into the mountains & rescued the young boy that Cochise had captured.

  

The Medal of Honor did not exist during the time of the "Bascom Incident," and would not be established until a year later in 1862.  However, the actions of Irwin were well remembered, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor just prior to his retirement. Irwin's actions were the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded, predating the outbreak of the American Civil War.  


Irwin subsequently served with the Union army during the Civil War, and was promoted to captain in August 1861, and the next year was appointed medical director under Major General William "Bull" Nelson. He improvised one of the first field hospitals used by the U.S. Army at the Battle of Shiloh, on April 7, 1862. He was captured during the Battle of Richmond,  Ky., while attempting to save the wounded General Nelson. He was promoted to major in September 1862, and after his release from a Rebel prison he became medical director in the Army of the Southwest.  From 1863 to 1865, he was superintendent of the military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in March of 1865, he was brevetted to the rank of colonel.  He was a companion of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Order of the Indian Wars of the United States. After the Civil War, Irwin served as a senior medical officer at several U.S. army posts, including West Point from 1873 to 1878. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1885, to colonel in August 1890, and to brigadier general in April 1904.  He died in Ontario, Canada, on December 15, 1917, and is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the U.S. Military Academy, New York.

  

His son George LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1889, and served in World War I, becoming a Major General in the U.S. Army.

 

His grandson Stafford LeRoy Irwin, graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in World War II, and became a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army.

 

His daughter, Amy Irwin Addams McCormick, was a nurse with the American Red Cross and served during World War I.


General Irwin was an admirer and collector of photographs, and he put together a very large, and superb collection of Union and Confederate images. Interestingly, he collected photographs of both Rebel and Yankee alike. I have owned several famous military photograph albums before and never came across one that collected images from both sides of the rebellion. He numbered each individual image, and wrote a brief historical notation on each one. The collection was split up by another dealer, and by the time I found out about it, I was still very fortunate to be able to acquire about one third of his superb Civil War image collection. Each image is rare because it is "one of a kind" having come from the Irwin collection!


The image of B.J.D. Irwin pictured here is a copy photograph from the "Find a Grave" website and is used here for illustration purposes only.


   


<b>War Date Letter Signed With Rank


General Porter writes to Governor Morgan of New York to send him recruits for the 13th, 17th and 25th New York Volunteer Regiments</b>


(1822-1901) Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he was the cousin of Union Admiral David D. Porter. He graduated in the West Point class of 1845, and earned the brevets of captain and major for gallantry and bravery in the Mexican War at the Battle of Molino del Rey, and at the Battle of Chapultepec where he was wounded. From 1849 to 1855 he was the assistant instructor of artillery at the U.S. Military Academy, and from 1857 to 1860, he served as Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston's adjutant in the Utah expedition. Porter was promoted to brigadier general on May 17, 1861. He became a trusted adviser and loyal friend to General George B. McClellan, but his association with the soon-to-be-controversial commanding general of the Union army would prove to be disastrous for Porter's military career. In the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, Porter led a division of the 3rd Corps, and during the 7 Days battles he commanded the 5th Corps where he demonstrated some of the finest defensive fighting of the entire Civil War, and at the Battle of Malvern Hill, Porter also played a leading role. General Porter had a very memorable experience when he decided to make aerial observations in a hot air balloon without the assigned expert to handle the craft, Professor Thaddeus Lowe. When he ascended with only one securing line, the balloon subsequently broke loose and General Porter found himself drifting west over enemy lines in danger of being captured or killed. Fortunately, the combination of a favorable wind change and Porter himself adjusting the gas valves allowed him to return to the Union lines and land safely. Although it was an embarrassing accident, General Porter was able to perform his observations of enemy defenses as intended and recorded his findings, although the observation balloon program was disbanded a year later. He saw action in the 2nd Bull Run campaign, and at Antietam. Porter became the unfortunate scape goat for the anti General George B. McClellan faction in the army & the government headed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and was tried on trumped up charges by a military commission for his actions in the 2nd Bull Run campaign. With the odds greatly stacked against him by virtue of defective maps, perjury and hearsay testimony, Porter was found guilty and dismissed from the army in 1863. He spent the rest of his life in an effort to vindicate his name and honor and have his name reinstated on the army roster. Sixteen years later a board headed by General John M. Schofield not only completely exonerated Porter from the charges brought up against him, but also cited him as the savior of the Army of Virginia at 2nd Bull Run! The ruining of the career of this magnificent soldier simply for his devotion to his friend and commanding officer, General McClellan, was a disgraceful chapter in the history of the Army of the Potomac. President Grover Cleveland commuted Porter's sentence and a special act of the U.S. Congress restored Porter's commission as an infantry colonel in the Regular U.S. Army, backdated to May 14, 1861. Two days later, August 7, 1886, Porter, seeing vindication, voluntarily retired from the Army. He served as the New York City Commissioner of Public Works, the New York City Police Commissioner, and the New York City Fire Commissioner. On December 27, 1894, Porter, along with 18 others, founded the Military and Naval Order of the United States, which was soon renamed the Military Order of Foreign Wars. Porter's name was at the top of the list of signers of the original institution and received the first insignia issued by the Order. Porter died in Morristown, New Jersey, on May 21, 1901, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.


<u>War Date Letter Signed:</u> 2 pages, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4, in ink, written to the Governor of New York.


To

His Excellency Edwin D. Morgan

Governor of New York

Albany, New York


Division Head Quarters

Hall's Hill, Va., January 26/62


Governor,


If in your power to fill up at an early day the following Regiments from your State, in my command, you will be doing them- already remarkable for their efficiency- a most excellent service which will redound to the credit of the State so soon as they take to active service which I doubt not will be soon. The Regiments are small in comparison with those from other States in the same brigades- which have been kept at the maximum. They are well armed, equipped, disciplined & drilled and prepared to take the field- but their small numbers will not permit them to compete to the desired extent with other excellent Regiments, in the same brigade and division. The number of men required for the 13th New York Vols- 260 men, 17th New York Vols. 217 men, 25th New York Vols. 405 men. May I ask your aid & hope soon to hear of recruits arriving from you.


I am Governor,

Your Obt. Servant,

F.J. Porter

Brig. Genl. Com'g.


Docketed on the reverse.  Very fine letter and content. Neatly written.      


<b>He lost his right arm at the battle of Churubusco in 1848 during the Mexican War


Severely wounded and carried from the field at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo. in 1861


Wounded in the Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee


"Our best generals I consider to be Joseph E. Johnston, W.T. Sherman, and Phil Sheridan."</b>


(1820-92) He was born in County Cork, Ireland on Christmas Day in 1820, and came to America at the age of 12. Interested in the militia, he joined the "Independent Tompkins Blues" which later were called the "Baxter Blues" In 1846, Sweeny enlisted as a second lieutenant in the 2nd New York Volunteers, and fought under General Winfield Scott in the Mexican War. He was wounded in the groin at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, and his right arm was so badly shattered at the Battle of Churubusco that it had to be amputated. For his heroic actions, his fellow soldiers nicknamed him "Fighting Tom." Despite this usually career ending wound, he continued serving with his regiment until the outbreak of the Civil War, but prior to the commencement of hostilities between the states, Sweeny fought in the Yuma War, 1850–53, seeing action in several engagements against native American Indians. Sweeny was in command of the very important St. Louis, arsenal, and in reply to the efforts of Confederate sympathizers to induce him to surrender the post, he declared that he would blow it up before ever surrendering it. He took part in the capture of Camp Jackson, Mo., in May 1861, and later assisted in organizing the "Home Guard," and was chosen as their brigadier general.    Sweeny was sent with General Franz Sigel to Carthage, Mo., and at Wilson's Creek he was wounded and carried from the field. He served at Fort Donelson, and at the Battle of Shiloh he commanded a brigade of General W.H.L. Wallace's division, which sustained 1,247 casualties with Sweeny numbered among the wounded. He successfully defended a gap in the Union line, and was shot twice in his only remaining arm and once in one of his legs. Sweeny stayed on the field until the close of the fight, gaining much admiration of the entire army. At the battle of Corinth in October 1862, he succeeded to brigade command after the death of General P.A. Hackleman. He spent most of 1863 on duty in Tennessee and Mississippi and later commanded the 2nd division in the 16th Corps, which he led in the Atlanta campaign. At the Battle of Atlanta, Sweeny's division intercepted General John Bell Hood's flank attack, and Sweeny got into a serious fist fight with his corps commander, General Grenville M. Dodge, when Dodge broke protocol and personally directed one of Sweeny's brigades during the fight. Sweeny received a court martial for these actions but was acquitted. He mustered out of the volunteer army in August 1865. In 1866, he commanded the ill fated Fenian invasion of Canada, after which he was arrested for breaking neutrality laws between the United States and Britain, but was soon released. General Sweeny retired to Astoria, Long Island, New York, and died there on April 10, 1892. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.  


<u>Autograph Letter Signed</u>: 5 x 8, 2 pages in ink.


35 W 125th St., New York City

June 22d, 1886


Mr. Edgar F. Gladwin

Brooklyn, N.Y.


Dear Sir,


In order to comply with the request contained in your letter of the 15th inst. it would take more time than I can devote to the subject at present as I am about to move into the country with my family in a few days, Besides I am not sufficiently acquainted with the military history of the Russian and Austrian generals now living to form a correct estimate of their respective merits. Without doubt Von Moltke is the ablest general now living possessing as he does the qualities of strategist and grand tactician. Russia lost her best general Skobelev a few years ago, and next to Von Moltke, Germany lost her ablest generals in the Red Prince and Marshal Manteufel. England has no great generals living, but Sir Frederick Roberts commander in chief in India is decidedly her best. Our best generals I consider to be Joseph E. Johnston, W.T. Sherman, and Phil Sheridan. Regretting that I cannot give you a more elaborate and satisfactory opinion on the subject, I am, dear sir,


Yours respectfully,

T.W. Sweeny

Brig. Genl. U.S.A.


Very neatly written, and in excellent condition. Very interesting military related content even mentioning three of the most famous generals that fought in the Civil War, two Union and one Confederate, all former United States Army officers, that he considers to be "our best generals." Extremely desirable Union general's autograph.  


   


<b>Letter Signed Regarding the annual Lady Washington Reception</b>


(1827-1894) Born in Carrollton, Illinois, he graduated in the West Point class of 1847 and was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Artillery. He served during the Mexican War under General Winfield Scott, and was later on frontier duty and garrison duty as an assistant to Major George H. Thomas. He was adjutant at the United States Military Academy from 1854 to 1859, under Colonel Robert E. Lee. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commanding a battery of light artillery in the defenses of Washington, when he was assigned as chief of staff to General Irvin McDowell serving in the Battle of 1st Bull Run. Afterwards he served as chief of staff under General Don Carlos Buell, in the Army the Ohio, taking part in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and the pursuit of General Braxton Bragg's army in Kentucky. Fry was appointed Provost Marshal General of the United States Army, on March 17, 1863, and promoted to rank of brigadier general. General Ulysses S. Grant was quoted as saying that General Fry was the officer best fitted to handle the position. General James B. Fry was brevetted to brigadier general, and major general, in the Regular U.S. Army, for faithful, meritorious, gallant and distinguished service during the Civil War. After the war Fry remained on active duty in the Regular U.S. Army, and served as the adjutant general of the Division of the Pacific, and as adjutant general of the Department of the East, until his retirement from the Army on July 1, 1881. General Fry died in Newport, Rhode Island, and was buried at the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.


<u>Letter Signed</u>: 4 1/2 x 6 3/4, 2 pages in ink, on his imprinted letter sheet with his initials "JBF" at the top center.


Dear Madam,


I deeply regret that an engagement of long standing for the 22 instant which cannot be broken or accommodated to any other will deprive me of the pleasure & the honor of availing myself of your kind offer to escort one of the ladies at the opening of the "Lady Washington Reception" on the 22 inst. 


Very truly yours,

James B. Fry


To:

Mrs. John D. Townsend

353 West 34th Street


Neatly written. Very fine letter. Interesting content relating to the very 1st Lady, Mrs. Martha Washington, the wife of President George Washington.


The "Lady Washington Reception" was an annual tradition that started in Philadelphia on May 7, 1789, during President George Washington's first term in office. This grand ball attended by a group of notables of the period was an event that provided the model for what would become the first official inaugural ball of the newly elected President and his 1st Lady. The term "Lady Washington" was a term used relating to British peerage and was meant to be a title of honor.

CDV, General George B. McClellan $1250.00

 

Autograph, General Fitz John Porter $250.00

 

Autograph, General Thomas W. Sweeny $250.00

 

Autograph, General James B. Fry $100.00




<b>Graduated #1 in the West Point class of 1853 


Killed in the Atlanta campaign in July 1864 bringing commanding General William T. Sherman to tears!


Very rare circa 1862 Mobile & Ohio Railroad document signed as Brigadier General</b>


(1828-64) He was born in Clyde, Ohio, and graduated #1 in the West Point class of 1853, a class which included future Civil War generals' Philip H. Sheridan, John M. Schofield and John Bell Hood.  After graduation McPherson was commissioned brevet second lieutenant and he was appointed to the Corps of Engineers. For a year after his graduation, he was assistant instructor of  engineering at West Point, a position never before given to so young an officer. From 1854 to 1857, McPherson was the assistant engineer upon the defenses of New York harbor, and the improvement of the Hudson River. In 1857, he was superintendent of the building of Fort Delaware, and in 1857–61 he was superintending engineer of the construction of the defenses of Alcatraz Island, at San Francisco, California, and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1858. In 1859, while in San Francisco, he met Emily Hoffman, a woman from a prominent merchant family in Baltimore who had come to California to help care for her sister's children. She soon became engaged to McPherson and a wedding was planned, but ultimately was put off by the onset of the Civil War. 


At the outbreak of the rebellion, he requested a position on the staff of General Henry W. Halleck, one of the senior commanders in the west. Promoted to captain, on August 6, 1861, he was sent to St. Louis, Missouri, serving under General Halleck as his aide-de-camp, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. McPherson's career began rising after this assignment, as he was the Chief Engineer in General Ulysses S. Grant's army during the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, Tenn., February 1862. He was promoted to brigadier general on May 15, 1862, and served as military superintendent of the railroads in western Tennessee. On October 8th, he was promoted to major general and was soon after given command of the 17th Corps in General Grant's Army of the Tennessee. He saw service at Shiloh, Corinth and Vicksburg, and on March 26, 1864, he was given command of the Army of the Tennessee which he led in the subsequent campaign in northern Georgia. Eleven years after their graduation, now Confederate General John Bell Hood opposed General McPherson before Atlanta, and Hood's battle order would result in the death of his old friend and classmate. McPherson was killed before Atlanta on July 22, 1864. General William T. Sherman's tears rolled through his beard and down on the floor when he viewed the dead body of his friend laid upon a door torn from its hinges and improvised as a bier.


Confederate General John Bell Hood, wrote of his old friend McPherson's death:


"I will record the death of my classmate and boyhood friend, General James B. McPherson, the announcement of which caused me sincere sorrow. Since we had graduated in 1853, and had each been ordered off on duty in different directions, it has not been our fortune to meet. Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His considerate and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many Federal officers."


General William T. Sherman openly wept upon the death of General McPherson, and  penned a letter to Emily Hoffman, McPherson fiance in Baltimore, stating: 


"My Dear Young Lady, A letter from your Mother to General Barry on my Staff reminds me that I owe you heartfelt sympathy and a sacred duty of recording the fame of one of our Country's brightest and most glorious Characters. I yield to none on Earth but yourself the right to excel me in lamentations for our Dead Hero. Why should death's darts reach the young and brilliant instead of older men who could better have been spared?"


McPherson was the second-highest-ranking Union officer to be killed in action during the war, the highest being General John Sedgwick. Miss Hoffman never recovered from his death, living a quiet and lonely life until her death in 1891.


<u>War Period Document Signed With Rank</u>: 14 x 8 1/4, imprinted form filled out and signed in ink. Payment Roll for laborers on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Beautifully signed at the left edge, next to imprint, "Examined And Found Correct, "Jas. B. McPherson, Brig. Genl. & Supt." This document is circa 1862, as General McPherson only held the rank of Brigadier General for a very brief period of time in 1862. McPherson was appointed to rank of brigadier general on May 15, 1862, and at that time was the superintendent of the military railroads in the district of West Tennessee in June. On October 8, 1862, he was promoted to major general for conspicuous gallantry at the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi. That means this document had to be signed by General McPherson sometime during the narrow window between May 15, 1862, and October 8, 1862. There is a docket on the reverse, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Hon. Payment Roll, Rail Road Equipage. Extremely desirable, and very rare war period signed document of General James B. McPherson.   

 


<b>Killed in the battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia on February 6, 1865</b>


(1832-65) Born at Petersburg, Virginia, he graduated in the West Point class of 1854. Resigning his commission in the U.S. Army on May 10, 1861, he served as a lieutenant colonel under General Robert S. Garnett in the Rich Mountain campaign, and was captured. After his return to the army, he was promoted to colonel and served under Generals' P.G.T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith respectively, being chief of staff to the latter during the 1862 invasion of Kentucky. Appointed brigadier general to rank from November 7, 1862, he was assigned a cavalry brigade, and fought at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and at Chickamauga, Ga. Pegram also led a division of the legendary General Nathan Bedford Forrest's corps. He was subsequently transferred to the Army of Northern Virginia, and given command of an infantry brigade in General Jubal A.  Early's division of the 2nd Corps, which he led with distinction and gallantry at the battle of the Wilderness, Va., where he was wounded, and in the Shenandoah Valley. After the death of General Robert Rodes, Pegram took over as division commander. In the battle of Hatcher's Run, Va., on February 6, 1865, he was struck near the heart by a musket ball, and killed instantly. His funeral took place at St. Paul's Church, in Richmond, where only 3 weeks earlier he had been married! Quite a sad ending to this very gallant and young Confederate fighter!


<u>Signature</u>: 3 3/4 x 1 1/4, in ink, Jno. Pegram. Nice large and boldly signed. Very rare, and extremely desirable Confederate autograph. 

 


<b>He gallantly commanded a division in Sickles 3rd Corps at Gettysburg


Autograph Letter Signed as Major General</b>


(1810-83) Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his grandfather, Joshua, was the "Father of the American Navy," who had served as chief naval constructor from 1794 to 1801, and designed the first U.S. warships, six frigates, the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and her sister ships. Andrew's father, Samuel, designed and built the USS Pennsylvania, the largest and most heavily armed warship at the time. Samuel, like his father, was a chief naval constructor from 1826 to 1846. Andrew graduated from West Point in 1831, and  upon graduation joined the 2nd U.S. Artillery at Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. At the beginning of the Seminole Indian Wars Humphreys followed his regiment in the summer of 1836 to Florida where he received his first combat experience. Humphreys was appointed an aide to General George B. McClellan in 1861, and was promoted to brigadier general in April 1862. In September of that year he took command of a division of the 5th Corps which he led with distinction in the Antietam campaign, the bloody assault on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, and at the battle of Chancellorsville. He was then transferred to command a division in General Dan Sickles 3rd Corps; where he fought gallantly in resisting the assaults of Generals' John Bell Hood and Lafayette McLaws at Gettysburg, earning promotion to major general. Shortly thereafter, he became Army of the Potomac commander, General George G. Meade's chief of staff. In 1864, Humphreys was appointed to take command of the 2nd Corps by General U.S. Grant, an assignment he brought inspiring leadership to, and he played an important role leading up to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. After the war, General Humphreys commanded the District of Pennsylvania, and became a permanent Brigadier General, and Chief of Engineers in 1866. He oversaw a corps that did river and harbor work and he held this position until June 30, 1879, when he retired. He also served during this period on lighthouse and other engineering boards. He wrote his personal accounts of the war, published in 1883: "From Gettysburg to the Rapidan and The Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65." He died in Washington, D.C., on December 27, 1883, and is buried there in the Congressional Cemetery.


<u>Autograph Letter Signed</u>: 1 page, 5 3/4 x 9 1/4, in ink.


Washington, May 25, 1868


Messrs. W.W.H. Davis

Mahlon Yardley

Henry P. Ross

& others, [Committee]


Doylestown, Penna., 


I have received your invitation to participate in the ceremonies of the dedication of the monument lately erected to the memory of the officers and men of the 104th Pennsylvania Regt. who fell in the late war, and regret that official engagements will prevent my being present on the occasion, for it is always a source of satisfaction to unite in a tribute of respect to those who fell in the war.


Respectfully,

Your obdt. Servt.,

A.A. Humphreys

Maj. Genl.


Very fine condition with some old, light glue stains around the other edges of the verso. Excellent content. Very desirable Union Gettysburg general's A.L.S.    


<b>Received five wounds at the Battle of Sharpsburg, Md. in 1862 and almost died


United States Senator from Georgia


Governor of Georgia


Endorsement on the reverse of a letter to Senator John B. Gordon</b>


(1832-1904) Born in Upson County, Ga., he had one of the most spectacular Civil War and postbellum careers of any civilian who fought for the Confederacy. His army service began shortly after the bombardment of Fort Sumter when he raised a company of mountain men from northwest Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee called the "Raccoon Roughs," of which he was unanimously elected major, and his War Between the States career ended at Appomattox Court House as a corps commander. Six foot tall, narrow of frame, and possessing perfect posture, Gordon could inspire confidence in his troops with his image alone. General Lee gave him the distinct honor of leading the Army of Northern Virginia at the formal surrender ceremony at Appomattox. In between he fought magnificently on every battlefield in which the Army of Northern Virginia participated, except when he was absent from wounds. During the battle of Sharpsburg he was wounded five times, once severely in the head, and only a bullet hole in his cap prevented him from drowning in his own blood as he lay unconscious face down on the ground! He was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1862. He compiled a brilliant record in the Wilderness campaign, and in the Shenandoah Valley under General Jubal A. Early. His promotion to major general dated to rank from May 14, 1864. On the retreat from Petersburg, he was in command of one half of General R.E. Lee's army. General Lee considered him one of his most trusted subordinates and selected him to oversee the army's final offensive movement, the attack on Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865. After the war Gordon returned to Georgia where he became the idol of the people of his native state. He was elected to the U.S. Senate three times and was Governor of Georgia from 1886-90. A prime organizer of the United Confederate Veterans, he was elected its first commander-in-chief and served in that position from 1890 until his death. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Ga.


<u>Endorsement on the verso of a letter to Senator John B. Gordon</u>: 5 x 8, 2 pages in ink, written to Senator Gordon, by S. Root.


60 Broadway, N. York

March 16/75


Hon. J.B. Gordon,

My Dear Sir:


Mr. Root writes that he does not know Mr. Conklin or Mr. Kernan from New York.  He discusses a book that was published in 1869, and one in 1873 which he has used in his correspondence with England.  He continues by saying that if it will trouble you or cost you anything don't bother about it. Hopes that he will put through the extra session of the Senate., and that it will come only in good health & spirits. Mr. Varley of London -a baptist- is creating some excitement there & he thinks is doing good practicing to enormous crowds of 15,000 to 20,000. Ends the letter by offering his kind regards to Gordon & his family, and signs the letter, Cordially yours, S. Root. 


There is a docket on the reverse: March 16, 1875. Hon. John B. Gordon.


On the center panel of the verso of the letter is written: Will Mr. Merchant please [mail] these books to Mr. S. Root, 60 Broadway, N. York with my frank & oblige me. Truly, J.B. Gordon. Very nice signature! The letter has been professionally tipped into a thick 8 1/4 x 11, album page, so all sides of the letter are easily accessed and read. Bold and neatly written.


General John B. Gordon is extremely popular and very desirable. Excellent piece.


Comes with an engraved portrait etched by Charles B. Hall, New York. 5 3/4 x 9, standing portrait of General Gordon wearing his Confederate uniform with rank of major general, and holding his slouch hat and sword. Excellent condition.

Autograph, General John B. McPherson $950.00

 

Autograph, General John Pegram $950.00

 

Autograph, General Andrew A. Humphreys $395.00

 

Autograph, General John B. Gordon $250.00




<b>United States Congressman from Mississippi


Colonel of the 17th Mississippi Infantry


Wounded during the Seven Days Battles in 1862


Rare 1861 Mississippi "Confederate Guards" document on Army of Mississippi imprinted letter sheet</b> 


(1820-91) Born near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Featherston completed his preparatory studies, but left school in 1836 to enroll in a local militia company to fight the Creek Indians during the Creek War. He later moved to Mississippi where he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, and established a successful law practice. He served as a Democratic United States Congressman from Mississippi from 1847-51. After his two terms in congress he settled in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and practiced law there. With the secession of Mississippi, Featherston was appointed as a commissioner to visit neutral Kentucky to try to influence Governor Beriah Magoffin into also seceding from the Union. When the War Between the States broke out in 1861, Featherston joined the Confederate State Army with rank of captain, and was in command of a Company called the "Confederate Guards," who would be incorporated into  the 17th Mississippi Infantry, and on June 4, 1861, Featherston became colonel of the regiment, and he led them in the First Battle of Manassas, Virginia. Next seeing action in the Battle of Ball's Bluff, Va., on October 21, 1861, he was cited for gallantry, and promoted to rank of brigadier general. Elevated to brigade command in the Army of Northern Virginia, he fought in the 1862 Virginia Peninsula Campaign, and was wounded during the Seven Days Battles at Glendale, Va. He then saw action in the Second Battle of Manassas, Va., at Antietam, Md., and at Fredericksburg, Va. Featherston was transferred to Mississippi in early 1863, and was assigned to command a brigade of Mississippians in General William W. Loring's Division, in General Joseph E. Johnston's army. General Featherston's brigade fought at the Battle of Champion Hill, on May 16, 1863 with Loring's division, which had marched off on its own to join General Johnston in Jackson, Mississippi, instead of retreating to Vicksburg. As a result, Featherston was not with General John C. Pemberton's army at Vicksburg when it was forced to surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant, on July 4, 1863. His brigade fought in other major campaigns in the western theater of the war, which included the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, and he saw action with General John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee during the Franklin and Nashville Campaign. He had two horses shot and killed from under him at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864. Featherston commanded a brigade in the 1865 Carolina's Campaign, and he surrendered with General Johnston's army in North Carolina, and was paroled in Greensboro, on May 1, 1865. After the war, he returned to his home in Holly Springs, and failed in an attempt to be elected as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi, and then returned to his law practice. He was elected to the Mississippi State House of Representatives in 1876, and again in 1880, and served as the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was a delegate to the 1880 Democratic National Convention, and in 1882, he became Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit of Mississippi, and in 1890 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention. General Winfield Scott Featherston died at his home in Holly Springs, Mississippi on May 28, 1891, and was buried in Hillcrest Cemetery, in Holly Springs. There is a large bust statue of General Featherston at the Vicksburg National Military Park.


<u>War Date Document Signed</u>: 7 3/4 x 10, in ink, on a rare 1861 imprinted Army of Mississippi letter sheet.


Quarter-Master's Department, Army of Mississippi

Jackson, May 17th, 1861


Received of Col. Wm. Barksdale, Quartermaster General, of the Army of Mississippi the following Camp Equipage, blankets, knapsacks, canteens, and straps and tents complete for the use of  my Company, the Confederate Guards. The document continues by giving a very detailed and itemized list of the other various camp equipage received by then Captain Featherston, in command of the "Confederate Guards" of Mississippi. Signed at the bottom, W.S. Featherston, Capt. Confed. Guards.


Light age toning and wear. Very fine, and neatly written early war, Confederate document. Large signature with rank of this very hard fighting future Confederate general on an early, and very desirable Army of Mississippi imprinted letter sheet. Captain Featherston commanded the "Confederate Guards" who were recruited in Marshall County, Mississippi, and became Company G, of the 17th Mississippi Infantry. Featherston was in command of the "Confederate Guards" for only a very short time before being commissioned colonel of the regiment. Very rare "Confederate Guards" document!


<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: An interesting note about this rare Confederate document is that these supplies were issued by then Colonel William Barksdale, Quartermaster General of Mississippi. Barksdale would go on to fame as a Confederate general who led the Mississippi Brigade at the battle of Gettysburg, and was mortally wounded in the fighting at the famous Peach Orchard, on July 2, 1863. He died the next morning in a Union field hospital, located at the Joseph Hummelbaugh farmhouse.            


<b>The oldest officer, Union or Confederate, to actively command troops during the Civil War


1864 Dated Autograph</b>


(1784-1869) Born at Newburgh, New York, Wool was the oldest officer to have active command on either the North or the South during the Civil War. He served in the War of 1812 gaining the rank of colonel and inspector general of the army. In 1826, he was brevetted brigadier general for meritorious service, and in 1841 was promoted to full brigadier general of the line. He participated in moving the Cherokee Indians from their tribal lands in Georgia and Tennessee to what is now eastern Oklahoma. In the Mexican War, he greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Buena Vista, and received the thanks of Congress, and was awarded a presentation sword. He was brevetted to rank of major general in 1847, and from that time until the beginning of the Civil War, Wool commanded the Department of the East and the Department of the Pacific. In 1861, he ordered reinforcements into Fort Monroe just in time to save it for the Union whereby establishing a U.S. stronghold on the Virginia capes that operated as a determent to the Confederacy throughout the war. On May 17, 1862, he was promoted to a full major general in the regular U.S. Army. He continued to command the Department of Virginia until his retirement in the summer of 1863 having rendered fifty years of service to his country. He died in Troy, N.Y., at the age of 85, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.


<u>War Date Signature</u>: 2 1/4 x 1 1/2, in ink, Troy, 30th August 1864, John E. Wool, U.S.A. Light age toning and wear.  


(1797-1878) Born in Cortlandt, New York, he entered the navy as a midshipman in 1811. During the War of 1812, he served on Lakes Ontario and Champlain, participating in the victory at the latter place for which he received the "Thanks of Congress." He served on the frigate Constellation during the Algerine War, cruised on the frigate Macedonia suppressing piracy in the West Indies, commanded the schooner Shark and the sloop Levant in the Mediterranean, and commanded the sloop Vincennes in the East Indies. He was in charge of the Navy Yard at Washington, D.C., 1853-55, and the Home Squadron, 1856-58. In 1861, Paulding was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to assist in building up a wartime fleet which included construction of ironclad gunboats. Paulding was assigned to evacuate ships from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, in Virginia, which the Confederates planned to seize, in April 1861. He found that Charles S. McCauley, commander of the navy yard, had ordered the destruction of the ships. Paulding had to complete the work of burning and scuttling the largest number of the ships, and was able to remove the USS Cumberland, towed by the USS Pawnee. The USS Merrimack was burned to the waterline, but it was later refitted as the CSS Virginia, also known as the Merrimac. In August 1861, Paulding was named by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to the Ironclad Board, responsible for approving designs for and the construction of ironclad warships for the Union navy. The result was the construction of the USS New Ironsides, the USS Galena, and most famously the USS Monitor, who fought the Confederate ironclad, the CSS Virginia, on March 9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, Va., becoming the first ever battle between two ironclad warships in naval history. He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral, on July 10, 1862, and rendered valuable service in command of the New York Navy Yard, at Brooklyn, until May 1865. After the war he served as Governor of the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia, and as the post admiral at Boston. Paulding died at Huntington, Long Island, New York, on October 20, 1878.


<u>Signature</u>: 3 x 1, in ink, H. Paulding. Light wear. Very fine.  


<b>War Date Letter Signed


Besides fighting in the Mexican War & the Civil War General Stone was the Chief Engineer of the Statue of Liberty project at Bedloe's Island, New York City Harbor</b>


(1824-87) Born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, he was a descendant of Puritan ancestors who had fought in every war in which Americans had been engaged. He graduated from West Point 7th in the class of 1845, and earned the brevets of 1st lieutenant and captain during the Mexican War. He saw action at Veracruz, Contreras, Molino del Rey and he was promoted brevet first lieutenant for "gallant and meritorious conduct" during the war. Stone served at the U.S. Military Academy, as an assistant professor teaching geography, history, and ethics from 1845-46. Afterwards, he was posted to the Watervliet Arsenal in New York as Assistant Ordnance Officer, and then to Fortress Monroe at Old Point Comfort, Virginia. While there Stone worked in the facilities arsenal and was an assistant to Captain Benjamin Huger, who threw his lot in with the Confederate army during the War Between the States. Early in 1861, Stone, under orders from General Winfield Scott, served as Inspector General of the District of Columbia with the rank of colonel and secured the capital and the personal safety of President elect Abraham Lincoln. He was personally responsible for security at the new president's inauguration. One of his most important acts in this role was to frustrate an attempt by southern militiamen and the secret society known as the "Knights of the Golden Circle" to carry out a coup against the new Lincoln administration. Lincoln came to trust Stone implicitly. Stone's prompt actions disintegrated the plot against the inaugural, and he was appointed Colonel of the 14th U.S. Infantry Regiment on May 14, 1861, and then brigadier general in the Union Army that August. He commanded a brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, and during the 1st battle of Bull Run, and a division at Ball's Bluff. Stone was made a scapegoat for the Union debacle at Ball's Bluff, Va., the Radicals in Congress led by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner who already disliked Stone because of his views on slavery, clambered for his removal. Stone lost about 1,000 men who were either killed, wounded, captured, or drowned during Ball's Bluff, while the Confederates lost less than 160. The Union total included Colonel Edward Baker, the only sitting U.S. Senator killed in combat when "four bullets ripped into him, and he was dead before he hit the ground." On February 8, 1862, at midnight, without charges being then or ever preferred, Stone was arrested and subsequently confined for 189 days in Forts Lafayette and Hamilton, in New York Harbor. He was grudgingly released on August 6th without reparation or even acknowledgement of an error in judgement made, a black eye for sure against the U.S. Army, especially since he was a favorite of President Lincoln. He was later requested by General Nathaniel P. Banks, and served with gallantry at Port Hudson, Louisiana, and in the Red River campaign. After the war he served 13 years as chief of staff of the Army of the Khedive of Egypt, having been recommended by General in command of the U.S. Army, William T. Sherman, where Stone greatly distinguished himself, earning the rank of ferik, equal to a lieutenant general, and the title of Ferik Pasha. Stone later returned to the United States, where he worked as an engineer for the Florida Ship Canal Company in 1883. In 1884, he accepted the position of Chief Engineer of the Statue of Liberty project at Bedloe's Island, New York Harbor, and planned and supervised the construction of the Statue of Liberty's pedestal, concrete foundation and the reassembly of the Statue of Liberty after its arrival from France. He served as the grand marshal of the dedication parade in Manhattan on October 28, 1886, and fell ill some months afterwards, and died of pneumonia at his home in New York City. General Stone is buried in the West Point Cemetery, at the United States Military Academy. 


<u>War Date Letter Signed</u>: 7 3/4 x 10, in ink.


Head Quarters, Rockville Expedition

Camp near Poolesville, June 29th, 1861


Col. Cake

Comdg. Batln. 25th Penn. Regt.


En route-


Colonel,


I am informed by General Mansfield, Comdg. Dept. of Washington, that you were to leave Washington this day to join this command with the battalion under your command, and to come via Rockville.


You will please march as rapidly as practicable via Darnestown to this place, being careful not to break down your troops by too long marches.


A messenger (mounted) will be dispatched by you to these Head Quarters announcing your arrival at Darnestown.


Very respectfully, I am,

Colonel,

Your most obt. Servt.,

Chas. P. Stone

Col. 14th U.S. Inf., Comdg. Exp.[edition]


Light wear and age toning. Very fine condition. Excellent content.


The recipient of this letter was Colonel Henry L. Cake, 25th Pennsylvania Infantry. Cake was born on October 6, 1827, at Northumberland, Pa. He was a 33 year old publisher from Pottstown, Pa., when he enlisted on April 17, 1861, at Harrisburg, Pa. He was promoted to colonel of his regiment on May 1, 1861. He later served as colonel of the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry. He served as a member of the United States Congress from Pennsylvania, 1867-71. He died on August 26, 1899, in Northumberland, and is buried in Riverview Cemetery, Northumberland, PA.


The General Mansfield mentioned in Stone's letter was General Joseph K.F. Mansfield, who was mortally wounded in the Battle of Antietam, Md., on September 17, 1862, and he died the next day, September 18, 1862.

Autograph, General Winfield S. Featherst $495.00

 

Autograph, General John E. Wool

 

Autograph, Admiral Hiram Paulding, U. S. $35.00

 

Autograph, General Charles P. Stone $225.00




<b>He captured the cities of Atlanta, and Savannah, Georgia in 1864 presenting the latter as a Christmas present to President Lincoln


His infamous march from Atlanta to the sea laid waste to much of Georgia


General in Chief of the United States Army


Signature with rank of general</b>


(1820-1891) He was born in Lancaster, Ohio, and graduated #6 in the West Point class of 1840. Sherman roomed with and befriended another important future Civil War general for the Union, George H. Thomas. Fellow cadet William S. Rosecrans remembered Sherman as "one of the brightest and most popular fellows" at the academy and as "a bright-eyed, red-headed fellow, who was always prepared for a lark of any kind." Upon his graduation he entered the army as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery, and saw action in Florida in the Second Seminole War. In 1859, Sherman accepted a job as the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, in Pineville, Louisiana, a position he sought at the suggestion of future Union General, then Major Don Carlos Buell. He was an effective and popular leader of the institution, which would later become Louisiana State University. William T. Sherman rose to be one of the Union's most renowned military leaders, and saw action at 1st Bull Run, Shiloh, Chickasaw Bluffs, Arkansas Post, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, the infamous March to the Sea which took on his name, and the 1865 Carolina's campaign. He received the surrender of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army, at Greensboro, N.C., on April 26, 1865. Sherman continued in the Regular Army after the war, and became a Lieutenant General on July 25, 1866, and Full General, on March 4, 1869. In June 1865, two months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Sherman received his first postwar command, originally called the Military Division of the Mississippi, later the Military Division of the Missouri, which came to comprise the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Sherman's efforts in that position were focused on protecting the main wagon roads, such as the Oregon, Bozeman, and Santa Fe Trails. When Ulysses S. Grant became president in 1869, Sherman was appointed Commanding General of the United States Army, and promoted to the rank of full general. After the death of ex-Union General John A. Rawlins, Sherman served for one month as acting Secretary of War. Sherman lived most of the rest of his life in New York City. He was devoted to the theater and to amateur painting and was in demand as a colorful speaker at dinners and banquets, in which he indulged a fondness for quoting Shakespeare. Proposed as a Republican candidate for the presidential election of 1884, Sherman declined as emphatically as possible, saying, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected." Sherman died of pneumonia in New York City on February 14, 1891, six days after his 71st birthday. President Benjamin Harrison, who had served under General Sherman during the Civil War, sent a telegram to Sherman's family and ordered all national flags to be flown at half staff. Harrison, in a message to the Senate, and the House of Representatives, wrote that:


"He was an ideal soldier, and shared to the fullest the esprit de corps of the army, but he cherished the civil institutions organized under the Constitution, and was only a soldier that these might be perpetuated in undiminished usefulness and honor."


On February 19th, a funeral service was held at his home, followed by a military procession. Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate general who had commanded the resistance to Sherman's troops in Georgia and the Carolina's, served as a pallbearer in New York City. It was a bitterly cold day and a friend of Johnston, fearing that the general might become ill, asked him to put on his hat. Johnston replied: "If I were in Sherman's place, and he were standing in mine, he would not put on his hat." Johnston did catch a serious cold and died one month later of pneumonia. Sherman's body was then transported to St. Louis, where another service was conducted at a local Catholic church on February 21, 1891. His son, Thomas Ewing Sherman, who was a Jesuit priest, presided over his father's funeral masses in New York City, and in St. Louis. Former U.S. President, and Civil War General Rutherford B. Hayes, who attended both ceremonies, said at the time that General William T. Sherman had been "the most interesting and original character in the world." He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. 


Sherman's younger brother John, served as a U.S. Congressman from Ohio, and  was a prominent advocate against slavery.


<u>Autograph With Rank</u>: 5 x 3 1/4, in ink, this is the closing of a letter Sherman wrote and it includes his closing salutation and rank. "Reciprocating fully your kind Remembrance, I am truly Your friend & Kinsman, W.T. Sherman, General." Light age toning and wear. Very fine. There are another 6 lines in Sherman's hand on the reverse talking about his wife, six children and a daughter who was married in St. Louis who has two children, his grandchildren. Very nice example of the signature and handwriting of "Uncle Billy" Sherman! Always a desirable autograph.  


<b>Medal of Honor recipient for conspicuous gallantry at Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg


Wounded several times during the Civil War


Governor of Maine


Autograph Letter Signed</b> 


(1828-1914) Born in Brewer, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1852, then entered the Bangor Theological Seminary for three years of study. Besides studying in Latin and German, Chamberlain eventually mastered French, Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. He was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry, on August 8, 1862. Chamberlain's qualities were tested in the sharp engagement at Shepherdstown Ford immediately after the Battle of Antietam in September, and in the terrible experiences of his command in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg in December where he certainly won his master's degree in military education. In May, 1863, he was made colonel of his regiment, having already acted in that capacity for three months. At Gettysburg, on July 2, 1863, he held the extreme left of the Union line, and his conduct on that occasion in the memorable defense of Little Round Top won for him the admiration of the army and public fame, and he was recognized by the government in the bestowal of the Medal of Honor for "conspicuous personal gallantry and distinguished service." He was immediately placed in command of a division, which he handled with marked skill in the action at Rappahannock Station, Va. At Spotsylvania Court House, in May, 1864, he was placed in command of nine picked regiments to make a night assault on an impregnable point of the enemy's works. By remarkable judgment and skill he gained the position, but in the morning it was found to be commanded on both flanks by the enemy in force, therefore utterly untenable, and the withdrawal ordered was more difficult than the advance had been. Shortly afterward came the sharp engagements on the Totopotomy and the North Anna, and the terrible battles of Bethesda Church and Cold Harbor, Va., where his coolness of judgment and quickness of action drew special commendation. He made the desperate charge on Rives' salient in the Petersburg lines, where General Ulysses S. Grant promoted him on the field to the rank of brigadier general "for gallant conduct in leading his brigade against a superior force of the enemy." In this assault he was seriously wounded and reported dead, but after two months of intense suffering he returned to his command. In the last campaign of the war, with two brigades, he led the advance of the infantry with General Sheridan, and made the brilliant opening fight on the Quaker Road, on March 29, 1865, where he was twice wounded (in the left arm and breast), and his horse was shot out from under him. His conduct again drew the attention of the government, and he was promoted to the brevet rank of major general "for conspicuous gallantry" in this action. He distinguished himself on the White Oak Road, on March 31st, although much disabled by his wounds; and in the battle of Five Forks, April 1, 1865, his skillful handling of troops received special official mention. In the final action at Appomattox Court House, April 9th, he was called upon by General Phil Sheridan to replace his leading division of cavalry, and the first flag of truce from General James Longstreet came to him. His corps commander says in an official report: "In the final action General Chamberlain had the advance, and was driving the enemy rapidly before him when the announcement of the surrender was made." At the formal surrender of General Robert E. Lee's army he was designated to command the parade before which that army laid down the arms and colors of the Confederacy. Chamberlain was thus responsible for one of the most poignant scenes of the American Civil War. As the Confederate soldiers marched down the road to surrender their arms and colors, Chamberlain, on his own initiative, ordered his men to come to attention and "carry arms" as a show of respect. In his memoirs General Chamberlain described what happened next:


General John B. Gordon, at the head of the Confederate column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than a pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raised his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is a master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate flag following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the "carry arms." All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor the motion of a man, but an instead an awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead.



At the final grand review in Washington, D.C., his division had the honor of being placed at the head of the column of the Army of the Potomac, and his troops, fresh from the surrender at Appomattox, were received by the thronging spectators as might be imagined, as conquering heroes. Returning to Maine he was offered the choice of several diplomatic offices abroad, but almost as soon as he was out of the army, he was elected governor of Maine by the largest majority ever given in that commonwealth. His administration was very satisfactory and he continued in that office for four terms. In 1871, Chamberlain was elected president of Bowdoin College, his Alma Mater, and held that position until 1883, when he resigned, although he continued to lecture. 


Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain died of his lingering wartime wounds in 1914, in Portland, Maine.  He is interred at Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, Maine. Standing beside Chamberlain as he died was Dr. Abner O. Shaw of Portland, one of the two surgeons who had operated on him after his wounding at Petersburg, Virginia 50 years earlier. It is strongly suggested from medical professionals that it was complications from the serious wound he suffered at Petersburg that resulted in General Chamberlain's death. 


<u>Autograph Letter Signed</u>: 5 x 8, on imprinted letter sheet, written in ink, entirely in Chamberlain's hand.


No. 18. Treasury Department

Portland, Jan. 27, 1903


Col. Fred. R. Fay

5 Exchange St.


Dear friend,


Where can I get the half tone you kindly  spoke for?


It is called for now by several papers, and I feel pretty sure it is ready by this time.


Truly yours,

Joshua L. Chamberlain


Light age toning and wear. Boldly written. Very fine. Joshua L. Chamberlain's signature is extremely desirable, and he is one of the most popular officers to emerge from the Civil War on either side.  


<b>Autographed carte de visite with rank and regiment


Photographed as colonel of the 17th New York Infantry</b>


(1824-82) Born in Utica, N.Y., prior to the Civil War, Lansing was a key participant in the establishment of the "Military Association of New York." He enlisted in the Union army on May 18, 1861, at New York City, and was commissioned colonel of the 17th New York Infantry, a 2 year regiment. He saw action during the Siege of Yorktown, Va., as well as in the Seven Days Battles where he was seriously wounded and had to be hospitalized. On October 17, 1862, the 17th New York Infantry became part of the Army of the Potomac, and Lansing having recovered from his wounds was appointed as the commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, of the 5th Army Corps. He then served with his brigade at the battles of 2nd Bull Run, where his regiment made a valiant assault, in which it suffered the loss of 183 killed, 

wounded and missing, and at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Lansing was honorably discharged from the army when the term of service of his old regiment expired on June 2, 1863. He was promoted to brevet brigadier general on March 13, 1865. for his meritorious Civil War record. After the war, Lansing worked for the American European Express and spent several years in Paris as their representative, and in 1876, was an auditor of the Philadelphia Centennial. He also was active in veterans affairs, being a member of the General George G. Meade Post No. 1, of the Grand Army of the Republic, since January 29, 1879. Lansing died on April 13, 1882, and was buried at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, in Burlington, New Jersey.  


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Standing view in uniform with rank of colonel with a 2 piece badge pinned to his coat. Brady, Washington imprint on the front mount. Signed in ink on the front, H.S. Lansing, Colonel, 17 N.Y. Light age toning. Edges of the card mount are very slightly trimmed. Very scarce signed image.


<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: The 17th New York Infantry, were known as the "Westchester Chasseurs,"  


<b>Rare imprinted & signed two sided personal military card as Major General


He accompanied President-Elect Lincoln on his train ride into Washington, D.C. in 1861


Wounded at the 1st Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, July 1861


He emancipated slaves in some of the southern states in 1862 without orders which caused quite a controversy!


Presided over the trial of the Lincoln conspirators and was chosen to accompany the body of Mr. Lincoln to Springfield, Illinois for burial in 1865!</b>


(1802-86) His maternal grandfather was Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated in the West Point class of 1822, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Hunter was invited by President Elect Abraham Lincoln to travel with him on the inaugural train to Washington, D.C. in February 1861. Selected for high command by President Lincoln himself, Hunter became the 4th highest ranking officer in the volunteer army. He fought in the 1st battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, where he was wounded in the neck and cheek while commanding a division under General Irvin McDowell. In August 1861, he was promoted to major general of volunteers and served as a division commander in the Western Army under General John C. Fremont. He was appointed commander of the Western Department on November 2, 1861. He achieved notability for his unauthorized, and controversial 1862 order which emancipated slaves in some of the southern states, but President Abraham Lincoln quickly rescinded this order, because he was concerned about its political effects in the border states, which he was desperately trying to keep neutral. Their leaders advocated instead a gradual emancipation with compensation for the slave holders. Despite Lincoln's concerns that immediate emancipation in the South might drive some slave-holding Unionists to support the Confederacy, the national mood was quickly moving against slavery, especially within the Federal Army. General Hunter was a strong advocate of arming black men as soldiers for the Union cause. Undeterred by the president's reluctance and intent on extending freedom to potential black soldiers, Hunter again flouted orders from the federal government, and enlisted ex-slaves as soldiers in South Carolina without permission from the War Department. This action incensed border state slaveholders. After the Battle of Fort Pulaski, Ga., where black Union soldiers from the North proved their bravery, Hunter began enlisting blacks as soldiers from the occupied districts of South Carolina. He formed the first such Union Army regiment, known as the 1st South Carolina African Regiment. He was initially ordered to disband it, but eventually got approval from Congress for his action. The Confederates reacted strongly to the Union efforts to emancipate Southern slaves, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued strict orders to the army that General Hunter was to be considered a "felon and to be executed if captured." Hunter took over command of the Army of the Shenandoah, and the Department of West Virginia on May 21, 1864. General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Hunter to employ scorched earth tactics similar to those that would be used later in the year during General William T. Sherman's infamous March to the Sea. General Hunter's troops moved from Staunton to Charlottesville to Lynchburg, "living off the country" and destroying the Virginia Central Railroad "beyond any possibility of repair for weeks." General Robert E. Lee was concerned enough about Hunter that he dispatched a corps under General Jubal A. Early to deal with him. On June 5, 1864, Hunter defeated General William E. "Grumble" Jones at the Battle of Piedmont. Following orders, Hunter moved up the Valley destroying military targets and other industries such as blacksmith shops and stables that could be used to support the Confederacy. After reaching Lexington, his troops burned down the celebrated Virginia Military Institute, on June 11, 1864, where General Stonewall Jackson had been a professor, and artillery instructor before the war.  This was done in retaliation for the V.M.I. cadets fighting heroically in the battle of New Market, Va. Hunter also ordered the home of Governor John Letcher burned down to retaliate for its absent owner's having issued "a violent and inflammatory proclamation that incited the citizens of the country to rise up and wage guerrilla warfare on his troops." Hunter also wreaked havoc on Washington College, in Lexington, later named Washington and Lee University, in which General Robert E. Lee became its president after the war. According to General Fitzhugh Lee's biography of his uncle, Robert E. Lee, "Hunter had no respect for colleges, or the peaceful pursuits of professors and students, or the private dwellings of citizens, though occupied by women and children only, and during his three days occupancy of Lexington in June, 1864, the college buildings were dismantled, apparatus destroyed, and the books mutilated." General Hunter was thus given the name of "Black Dave." Hunter served in the honor guard at the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln, and accompanied his body back to Springfield, Illinois for burial. Thus Hunter had the unique distinction of accompanying Lincoln on his inaugural train trip from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., in February 1861, and his last one out of the Capitol city as he took Lincoln home to lie at rest in Springfield! He was the president of the military commission that tried the Lincoln conspirators after the president's assassination, the trial taking place in Washington, D.C.,  from May 8, 1865, to July 15, 1865. He retired from the U.S. Army in July 1866. General David Hunter died in Washington, D.C., on February 2, 1886, and is buried at the Princeton Cemetery, in Princeton, New Jersey.


<u>Personal Military Calling Card Signed With Rank</u>: 3 1/4 x 2, imprinted calling card, "Major General Hunter, U.S. Army." Beautiful, large and bold ink autograph, on the opposite side, "D. Hunter, Maj. Gen." Choice condition. Extremely desirable item. Rare. Great Lincoln assassination related item.

Autograph, General William T. Sherman $350.00

 

Autograph, General Joshua L. Chamberlain $1500.00

 

CDV, Colonel Henry S. Lansing $250.00

 

Autograph, General David Hunter




<b>Lawton favored Georgia's secession and became colonel of the 1st Georgia Volunteers whom he led at the capture of Fort Pulaski, Ga.


He was very severely wounded at the Battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland in 1862</b>


(1818-96) Born in Beaufort, South Carolina, he was the brother-in-law of Confederate General Edward Porter Alexander who commanded General Lee's artillery at Gettysburg. He graduated in the West Point class of 1839, and served in the 1st U.S. Artillery. His antebellum career saw him as the president of the Augusta & Savannah Railroad, and as a representative in both houses of the Georgia legislature. Lawton struck the first blow for independence in Georgia by leading the Georgia troops that captured Fort Pulaski, and he then commanded the forces that guarded the Georgia seacoast before being sent to fight in Virginia. He was promoted to brigadier general on April 13, 1861. General Lawton had an excellent battle record with the Army of Northern Virginia seeing action in General Stonewall Jackson's 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign, in the Seven Days battles, at the 2nd Battle of Manassas,  and at the Battle of Sharpsburg where he was very severely wounded. He was carried from the field to a temporary hospital, and spent months at home recuperating. When he returned to the field he was placed in command of the Quartermaster General's Department, serving in that position from 1863-65. He rendered very distinguished service while bringing much energy and resourcefulness to a position that was quite a difficult one for the Confederate army with their shortage of material, and the poorly regulated railroads in the South. After the war he practiced law in Savannah and became an important figure in politics being a member of the Georgia legislature, chairman of the state electoral commission, leader of the Georgia delegation at the Democratic National Convention, and minister to Austria. He was chosen as the President of the American Bar Association in 1882. Lawton died in Clifton Springs, New York, on July 2, 1896. He is buried in Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia.


<u>Card Signature With Sentiment & Date</u>: 4 x 2 1/2, in ink, I sign as requested, A.R. Lawton, April 13, 1885. Beautifully written. Choice condition.  


<b>Wounded at Salem Church, Virginia in the 1863 Chancellorsville campaign


Commanded the 1st Corps at Gettysburg after the death of General John F. Reynolds


Very Desirable War Date First Corps Signature With Rank & Date</b>


(1822-95) Born in Norfolk, Virginia, the city that his father Thomas Newton, Jr. represented in the U.S. Congress for 31 years. He graduated #2 in the West Point class of 1842, and was commissioned lieutenant in the elite Corps of Engineers. He taught engineering at the United States Military Academy, from 1843–46, and constructed numerous fortifications along the Atlantic coast, and the Great Lakes from 1846–52. He was a member of a special Gulf Coast defense board in 1856, and was appointed Chief Engineer, of the Utah Expedition in 1858. Newton, the native Virginian, remained loyal to the Union when the Civil War broke out in April 1861, and he was commissioned a brigadier general on September 23, 1861, and during the ensuing winter he employed his engineering skills to good use and strengthened the defenses around, Washington, D.C. During General McClellan's 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, Newton commanded a brigade in the ensuing battles. During the 1862 Maryland Campaign, he led a bayonet charge at South Mountain that resulted in taking the enemy position, and he also fought at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history, on September 17, 1862. Newton commanded a division in the 6th Corps, in the disastrous Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., on December 13, 1862. He was conspicuous in storming Marye's Heights during the 1863 Chancellorsville campaign, and he was wounded at Salem Church, Va. At the battle of Gettysburg, he was appointed to take over the command of the 1st Corps after the death of General John F. Reynolds, during the first day's battle, on July 1, 1863, by the Commander of the Army of the Potomac George G. Meade. After Gettysburg, General Newton was sent west to join the Army of General William T. Sherman, who regarded him to be a skilled commander. Newton fought gallantly in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, commanding the 2nd Division, 4th Corps, under command of General George H. Thomas. At the Battle of Peachtree Creek, Ga., he prevented a dangerous Confederate movement against Sherman and his rapidly constructed works allowed him to turn back the Confederate thrust, a victory that gained him accolades for his Civil War military career. After the capture of Atlanta, Newton commanded the District of Key West and the Tortugas, Florida, of the Department of the Gulf, from 1864 to 1866. After the war, Newton returned to the Corps of Engineers, where he oversaw improvements to the waterways around New York City, and to the Hudson River. He also had charge of New York Harbor defenses until he was appointed Chief of Engineers in 1884. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and retired from the U.S. Army in 1886, after forty-four years of meritorious service. He served as Commissioner of Public Works, in New York City, from 1886–88, and as President of the Panama Railroad Company from 1888–95. General Newton died in New York City on May 1, 1895, of complications from a heart disease and was originally buried at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens on May 4, 1895. He was then re-interred at his beloved United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., on June 14, 1895.


<u>War Date Signature With Rank</u>: 5 x 3 1/2, signed in ink, with army imprint at the top of the sheet of paper. Headquarters First Army Corps, Dec. 12th, 1863. Compliments of John Newton, Major Genl. Light age toning, and wear, with some small mounting traces at the corners of the reverse. Very nicely signed. Extremely desirable war date example of this hard fighting Union general. Comes with an excellent, 8 x 10, black and white copy photograph, of General Newton in uniform.  


<b>He earned the Thanks of Congress in 1862 for the capture of Roanoke Island, North Carolina 


Signature With Rank</b>


(1805-73) Born in Washington, D.C., he was the son of a chief clerk of the U.S. Navy Department. He was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy by Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton on June 28, 1812. He received his lieutenant's commission in 1825. After cruising the Pacific in the frigate United States, he participated in the bombardment of Veracruz during the Mexican War. He served consecutively as: commander of a detachment in the expedition against Tuxpan; senior officer of a commission which explored California and Oregon (1849–1850); was superintendent of the United States Naval Academy (1853–1857); and commander of the Brazil Squadron (1859–1861). Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he was appointed commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1861. He earned the Thanks of Congress in 1862 for the capture of Roanoke Island and the closing of the North Carolina sounds. Goldsborough and his command were sent to Hampton Roads, Va., at the request of Major General George B. McClellan to help protect Union forces landing on the Virginia Peninsula at the start of the Peninsula Campaign. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in August 1862. In June 1865, he was appointed as the first commander of the European Squadron. He took command of the Washington Navy Yard in 1868, and served there until his retirement in 1873. Rear Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough died in Washington, D.C., on February 20, 1877.


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 5 x 3/4, in ink, L.M. Goldsborough, Rear Adml. & Presiding Officer. Cut slightly irregular at the botton not affecting any of the writing. Boldly signed. Very desirable.  


<b>Colonel of the 4th Iowa Infantry


He was severely wounded in the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas in 1862, and in the Atlanta campaign in 1864


Served as Chief of Intelligence for the army of General U.S. Grant


He fought against the  Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in 1865


United States Congressman from Iowa</b>


(1831-1916) Born in Danvers, Massachusetts, he graduated from Norwich University with a degree in civil engineering in 1851. He settled in the Missouri River city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and for the next 10 years, was involved in surveying for railroads, including the Union Pacific. He organized a militia company called the "Council Bluffs Guards" in 1856, and when the Civil War broke out in 1861, he joined the Union army, and he was sent by Governor Samuel Kirkwood of Iowa to Washington, D.C., where he secured 6,000 muskets to supply Iowa volunteers. On July 6, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 4th Iowa Infantry. He was wounded in the left leg, near Rolla, Missouri, in 1861, when a pistol in his coat pocket accidentally discharged. He commanded the 1st Brigade, 4th Division, in the Army of the Southwest, at the Battle of Pea Ridge, where he had 3 horses shot out from under him, and he was severely wounded in the side and hand. For his gallant services at the battle, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers, and placed in command of the forces at Corinth, Mississippi. Following the repulse of Confederate General Earl Van Dorn at the Second Battle of Corinth, in October 1862, General Dodge's command fought successful engagements near the Hatchie River, and then turned to West Tennessee where he captured a band of Confederate guerrillas near Dyersburg. On February 22, 1863, troops from Dodge's command attacked Tuscumbia, and the rear column of Van Dorn's column, capturing a piece of artillery, 100 bales of cotton, 100 prisoners, and Van Dorn's supply train. Dodge served as General Ulysses S. Grant's Intelligence Chief in the western theater of the war, and became a pioneering figure in military intelligence during the Civil War. Dodge created a highly effective intelligence gathering network which later proved vital to General Grant's operations and was a precursor to the modern Intelligence Corps of the United States Army. It was one of the largest of the war, funded by the proceeds of captured Confederate cotton, with over 100 agents, and was so effective that their identities remain a mystery. It was perhaps the most accurate and comprehensive intelligence gathering network in history up to that time. His organization, which later became part of the Union Bureau of Military Information, helped Dodge in short order defeat General John B. Villepigue near the Hatchie River, capture Colonel W.W. Faulkner's command of partisan rangers near Island Number Ten, defeat General Earl Van Dorn at the Battle of Tuscumbia during his service with the Army of the Mississippi, and he was vital in the capture of Vicksburg under General Grant. General Dodge's network also led to the capture of Confederate spy Sam Davis, who was known as the "Nathan Hale of the Confederacy," and also as the "Boy Hero of the Confederacy." His efforts led to one of the unit's major successes which was the discovery and disruption of "Coleman's Scouts," the elite secret service unit of Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Dodge would utilize human intelligence from female spies, runaway slaves and unionists living in Confederate territory. He created a "Corps of Scouts" for special reconnaissance from units of loyal residents of the south, and ex-slaves. He also employed more technical intelligence gathering disciplines such as signals intelligence and counter intelligence by tapping telegraph wires while enciphering the Union Army's own dispatches. He was infamously obsessed with operational security and corresponded by courier rather than telegraph. His agents were trained to avoid exaggerations by innovative methods such as measuring the length of a column along a road. At its peak, his network ran from Georgia, to Alabama, to Tennessee, to Mississippi, where information would be reported to Dodge, to General Richard Oglesby, to General Stephen Hurlbut in Memphis, then to General Grant himself, a process of about ten days. Dodge would later report directly to Grant during the Vicksburg campaign, where he even had agents open the mail of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston. General Dodge's agents would report solely to him, and him alone, but on May 16, 1863, when intelligence indicated Grant could turn his forces away from Johnston and concentrate on General John C. Pemberton's forces at Vicksburg, "to achieve timely delivery of information, Dodge violated his own rules of communications security and had his agents report directly to Grant," resulting in the capture of one of his agents and the death of two others. In 1863, General Grant wrote to Dodge saying that "you have a much more important command than that of a division in the field." Dodge was promoted to major general on June 7, 1864, and he commanded the 16th Corps during General William T. Sherman's Atlanta campaign where he was again wounded. At the Battle of Atlanta, the 16th Corps happened to be placed in a position which directly intercepted General John B. Hood's flank attack. During the fighting General Dodge rode to the front and personally led General Thomas W. Sweeny's division into battle. This action outraged the one-armed Sweeny so much that he got in a fistfight with Dodge and fellow division commander General John W. Fuller. General Sweeny received a court-martial for this action while Dodge continued to lead the corps at the Battle of Ezra Church. During the ensuing siege of Atlanta, while looking through an eye hole in the Union breastworks a Confederate sharpshooter spotted him and shot him in the head. He ended his Civil War service commanding the Department of the Missouri. As the Civil War was coming to a close, General Dodge's Department of the Missouri was expanded to include the Departments of Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah, and during the summer of 1865, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians had been raiding the Bozeman Trail, and overland mail routes. He ordered a punitive campaign to quell these raids, which came to be known as the "Powder River Expedition." Field command of the expedition was given to General Patrick Edward Connor, who commanded the District of Utah. Connor's men inflicted a decisive defeat on the Arapaho Indians at the Battle of the Tongue River, but the expedition in general was inconclusive and eventually escalated into Red Cloud's War. During the 1865 campaign in the Laramie Mountains in Wyoming, known then as the Black Hills, while escaping from a war-party, Dodge realized he had found a pass for the Union Pacific Railroad, west of the Platte River. In May 1866, he resigned from the military and, with the endorsement of Generals' Grant and Sherman, became the Union Pacific's chief engineer and thus a leading figure in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Dodge's job was to plan the route and devise solutions to any obstacles encountered. Dodge had been hired by Herbert M. "Hub" Hoxie, a former President Lincoln appointee, and winner of the contract to build the first 250 miles of the Union Pacific Railroad. He served as U.S. Congressman from Iowa, 1867-69. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1868, and again at the 1876 convention in Cincinnati. After his term in office expired, he returned to railroad engineering. During the 1880s and 1890s, he served as president or chief engineer of dozens of railroad companies, and he went to New York City to manage the growing number of businesses he had developed. Dodge was appointed to head a commission investigating the conduct of the Army during the Spanish–American War. The commission traveled to several cities in Dodge's personal railroad car, and the report was published as a Senate document titled "Report of the Commission appointed by the President to investigate the Conduct of the War Department during the war with Spain." This commission came to be known as the "Dodge Commission." Dodge returned home to Iowa and died in Council Bluffs in 1916. He is buried there in Walnut Hill Cemetery. His home, the Grenville M. Dodge House, is a National Historic Landmark.


<u>Signature With Place</u>: 6 1/2 x 2, in ink, G.M. Dodge, Danvers, Mass. Light age toning and wear. Very desirable Union Civil War general.

Autograph, General Alexander R. Lawton $150.00

 

Autograph, General John Newton $195.00

 

Autograph, Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough $50.00

 

Autograph, General Grenville M. Dodge $100.00




<b>Colonel of the 3rd Virginia Infantry


United States Congressman from Virginia</b>


(1828-1919) Born near Petersburg, Virginia, he graduated from Hampton-Sydney College in 1845 as valedictorian of his class, and with a considerable reputation as an orator. He then studied law at the University of Virginia. By the outbreak of the Civil War, Pryor had a notable career as a lawyer, newspaper editor, and U.S. Congressman. He was known as a fiery and eloquent advocate of slavery, Southern states rights, and secession; although he and his wife did not personally own slaves, they came from the slave holding class. He resigned his seat in congress on March 3, 1861, and was said to have declined the honor of firing the first shot at Fort Sumter. Arriving in Charleston on April 10th, Pryor who was out of patience with his own state of Virginia for not yet joining South Carolina in secession, had come to urge an attack on Fort Sumter believing it would spur on the cautious Virginia to secede. Pryor said as he addressed an enthusiastic crowd from the balcony of the Charleston Hotel. "I thank you...that you have at last annihilated this accursed Union." He made fun of Virginia with this remark, "Give the old lady time...she is a little rheumatic...but I assure you that just as certain as tomorrow's sun will rise upon us, just so certain will Virginia be a member of the Southern Confederacy; and I will tell your Governor what will put her in the Southern Confederacy in less than an hour by Shrewsbury clock...strike a blow!" He served in the provisional Confederate Congress in 1861, and also in the first regular Congress in 1862 under the Confederate Constitution. He resigned to enter the army as Colonel of the 3rd Virginia Infantry. Promoted to rank of Brigadier General on April 16, 1862, he commanded a brigade in the 1862 Virginia campaign, the Seven Days Battles, the 2nd Manassas campaign, and at Sharpsburg, Md. At the latter battle he assumed command of General Anderson's Division, in General Longstreet's Corps, when General Richard H. Anderson was wounded. He later served as a courier for the Confederate cavalry under General Fitzhugh Lee, and was captured on November 27, 1864, as a suspected spy, and was confined in Fort Lafayette, New York, and was released on parole by order of President Lincoln, and returned to Virginia. In the early part of the war, his wife Sara Rice Pryor accompanied him and worked as a nurse for the Confederate troops. In 1865, an impoverished Pryor moved to New York City, invited by friends he had known before the war. He eventually established a law firm with the politician and notorious ex-Union General Benjamin F. Butler of Boston. Butler was widely known and hated in the South and known as "Beast Butler." Pryor became active in Democratic politics in New York, and brought his family from Virginia to New York in 1868, and they settled in Brooklyn Heights. He learned to operate in New York Democratic Party politics, where he was prominent among influential southerners who became known as "Confederate carpetbaggers."  Pryor was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1876, a year before the federal government pulled its last military forces out of the South and ended Reconstruction. Chosen by the Democratic Party for the important Decoration Day address in 1877, after the national compromise that resulted in the federal government pulling its troops out of the South, Pryor vilified Reconstruction and promoted the "Confederate Lost Cause." He referred to all the soldiers as noble victims of politicians, although he had been one who gave fiery speeches in favor of secession and war. In 1890, he was appointed as Judge of the New York Court of Common Pleas, where he served until 1894. He was next appointed as Justice of the New York Supreme Court, serving from 1894-99, when he retired. He died on March 14, 1919, in New York City, and was buried in Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, New Jersey, where his wife and their sons Theodorick and William were also buried. His daughter, Mary Blair Pryor Walker, was buried there after her death.  


<u>Card Signature With Sentiment & Date</u>: 3 3/4 x 1 3/4, in ink, beautifully signed, Very Respectfully, Roger A. Pryor, 25th June 1886. Excellent, bold and very desirable autograph.  


<b>Colonel of the 25th North Carolina Infantry


Severely wounded in 1864 at the Battle on the Weldon Railroad, Virginia


U.S. Congressman and Senator from North Carolina</b>


(1812-97) Born at Huntsville, North Carolina. He graduated from N.C. State University in 1832, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. He then started a political career, first in the North Carolina State Legislature, and then as a U.S. Congressman, 1843-45, and 1847-58. He was then elected U.S. Senator in 1860. When the Civil War began, he left Washington but did not resign his seat in the Senate; and was one of ten Southern senators expelled in absentia on July 11, 1861. Clingman was commissioned colonel of the 25th North Carolina Infantry, and appointed brigadier general, May 17, 1862, and commanded Clingman's Brigade which consisted of the 8th, 31st, 51st and 61st North Carolina Infantry Regiments. He served in the 1862 Virginia Peninsula campaign, and in North and South Carolina at Goldsboro, and Battery Wagner. In the spring of 1864 his brigade was ordered to Virginia, where he saw action at Cold Harbor, Drewry's Bluff, and Petersburg. In the battle on the Weldon Railroad in August 1864, he was severely wounded. His next service was at Fort Fisher and Bentonville, N.C., and he surrendered with General Joseph E. Johnston's Army, to General William T. Sherman, on April 27, 1865, at the Bennett House at Durham Station, N.C.  He died in Morganton, North Carolina, on October 3, 1897, and was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina.


<u>Signature</u>: 3 1/2 x 1 1/2, in ink, "Free, T.L. Clingman." This is what is known as a "free frank" signature, cut from the top portion of an envelope, written when Clingman served in the U.S. Congress. Congressional members were allowed to sign their names at the top of an envelope with the word "Free" written above it. This would allow them to get the privilege of free postage on items that they mailed. Written below Clingman's signature, in another hand is, Thos. L. Clingman, Senator for N. Carolina. Light age toning and wear.   


<b>Lieutenant Colonel of the 8th Louisiana Infantry


Wounded and captured at Winchester, Virginia in 1862 losing his left arm as a result, and at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 his left foot was blown off by an artillery shell


Governor of Louisiana</b>


(1834-1912) Born at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, he graduated in the West Point class of 1855. He studied law at the University of Louisiana, now Tulane University, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Napoleonville. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, he entered the Confederate Army as captain of the "Phoenix Guards," but was soon elected lieutenant colonel of the 8th Louisiana Infantry. He fought with the regiment at the 1st battle of Manassas, and in General Stonewall Jackson's celebrated 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign. He was wounded, and captured at Winchester, Virginia, in 1862, and lost his left arm as a result of this wound. He was wounded a second time, this occurring at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, where his left foot was torn off by an artillery shell. He had been promoted to brigadier general, on October 14, 1862, and commanded one of the Louisiana Brigades at Chancellorsville. Unfit for further field command after his two severe wounds that resulted in amputations, he was appointed commander of the post at Lynchburg, Va. He was later put in charge of the volunteer and conscript bureau of the Trans-Mississippi Department, a post he held for the remainder of the war. After the war, Nicholls returned to his law practice, and later served as Governor of Louisiana, 1877-80, and 1888-92. He was chairman of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1879, and returned the state Capitol from New Orleans back to Baton Rouge. He also accepted an appointment from President Grover Cleveland to serve on the Board of Visitors for the U.S. Military Academy. Nicholls became Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1892, a post which he held until 1911. He also grew sugar cane and other crops on his Ridgefield Plantation near Thibodaux. He died at Ridgefield, on January 4, 1912, and was interred in St. John's Episcopal Cemetery, in Thibodaux, La.  A street in New Orleans was named in his honor, that being  "Governor Nicholls Street" which meets the Mississippi River, near the downriver end of the French Quarter.  


<u>Card Signature</u>: 3 x 2 1/8, beautifully signed in ink, Francis T. Nicholls. Extremely desirable Confederate general's autograph. Excellent condition.  


<b>"The U.S. Army has rarely possessed an officer who was entrusted by the government with a greater variety of weighty responsibilities, or who proved himself more worthy of confidence."


Card Signature With Rank</b>


(1816-92) Born in Augusta, Georgia, he graduated #5 in the West Point class of 1836. From his graduation until the opening of the Civil War, he played a significant part in a wide range of engineering projects the most outstanding being the Potomac Aqueduct, and the additions to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, including the House and Senate wings and the dome. In the spring of 1861, Meigs was appointed Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army with rank of brigadier general. He served as Quartermaster General with great distinction throughout the Civil War, and until his retirement in 1882. He received promotion to brevet major general, on July 5, 1864. In October 1864, his son, 1st Lieutenant John Rodgers Meigs, was killed at Swift Run Gap in Virginia, while out on a 3 man patrol. Lieutenant Meigs was laid to rest in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Both President Abraham Lincoln, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton attended the burial. He was later re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery. General Meigs was also present for Lincoln's death. At 10:00 pm on the evening of April 14, 1865, Meigs heard that William Seward had been attacked by a knife-wielding assailant. He rushed to Seward's home on Lafayette Square just across the street from the White House. Shortly after arriving at Seward's home, Meigs learned of the shooting of Lincoln. He rushed to the Petersen House across from Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln lay dying. He stood at the front door of the house for the rest of the deathwatch. He alone decided who was admitted to the house. When Lincoln died at 7:22 am, on April 15, 1865, Meigs moved into the parlor to sit with the president's body. During Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington five days later, General Meigs rode at the head of two battalions of Quartermaster Corps soldiers. Meigs played a critical role in developing Arlington National Cemetery, both during the Civil War, and afterward. In mid-June 1864, General Meigs ordered that burials commence immediately on the grounds of Arlington House, the home of General Robert E. Lee. He demanded that officers be buried on the grounds of the mansion, around General Lee's former flower garden. Meigs plan was for the intentional retaliation against Robert E. Lee, as he hated Lee for betraying the Union, and ordered that more burials occur near the house to make it impossible for the Lee family to ever live in Arlington House again. He also decided to build a monument to Civil War dead in the center of a grove of trees just west of Lee's flower garden. Perhaps General Montgomery C. Meigs highest accolade came in the simple tribute he received in the general order announcing his death, "The Army has rarely possessed an officer who was entrusted by the government with a greater variety of weighty responsibilities, or who proved himself more worthy of confidence." General Montgomery C. Meigs, one of the ablest graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, was kept from the command of troops by the inestimably important services he performed as Quartermaster General. Perhaps in the military history of the world there never was so large an amount of money disbursed upon the order of a single man. The aggregate sum could not have been less than fifteen hundred million dollars during the war, accurately vouched and accounted for to the last cent! General Meigs contracted a cold on December 27, 1891, and within a few days, it turned into pneumonia. Meigs died at home at 5:00 pm, on January 2, 1892. His body was interred with high military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. 


<u>Card Signature With Rank</u>: 3 1/2 x 2 1/4, card signature, in ink, M.C. Meigs, Qr. Mr. Genl. U.S.A., Retd., Bvt. Major Genl. Very nicely signed. Excellent.

Autograph, General Roger A. Pryor $125.00

 

Autograph, Thomas L. Clingman $125.00

 

Autograph, General Francis R. T. Nicholls $125.00

 

Autograph, General Montgomery C. Meigs




<b>Colonel 102nd Illinois Infantry


Wounded at the Battle at Big Shanty, (Kennesaw Mountain) Georgia in the 1864 Atlanta campaign


War Date Letter Signed</b>


(1824-91) Born in in Portageville, New York. He attended Madison University, now Colgate University, and during his life he was a lawyer, railroad contractor, and U.S. Internal Revenue Official. Smith was a 38 year old resident of Oneida, Illinois when he enlisted in the Civil War, on September 8, 1862, and was commissioned lieutenant colonel, of the 102nd Illinois Infantry. He was promoted to colonel of the regiment on October 24, 1862, and commanded them for the entire duration of the war, and showed great leadership skills, and bravery. He was wounded on June 15, 1864, during the Battle of Big Shanty, (Kennesaw Mountain) Ga., in the Atlanta campaign. Promoted to Brevet Brigadier General, on March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious service during the war. He was mustered out of the Union army on June 6, 1865 at Washington, D.C. After the war he was a member of G.A.R. Post # 45 (James T. Shields Post) in Galesburg, Illinois. General Franklin C. Smith died on August 29, 1891, at Galesburg, and is buried at the Oneida Cemetery, in Oneida, Illinois.


<u>War Date Letter Signed</u>: 7 3/4 x 10, in ink.


Head Quarters 102d Ills. Vols.

Richmond, Va.

May 9, 1865


I certify on honor that William McMurtry formerly Colonel of the 102d Ills. Vol. Infantry has never received pay from the U.S. for services rendered in said regiment as shown by the books and papers in the Adjutant's Office of this regiment.


F.C. Smith

Colonel 102d Ills. Vol.


Excellent condition.


The subject of this letter, Colonel William McMurtry, had served as colonel of the 102nd Illinois Infantry, for a very brief period in 1862, and was apparently seeking his back pay.


   


<b>1862 War Date Letter Signed With Rank


General McClellan orders that the house, property & family of a Virginian be protected by the U.S. Army</b>


(1820-72) Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he was the grandson of the Revolutionary War General Andrew Porter, and a first cousin of the mother of first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. He was also a first cousin of General Horace Porter, U.S. Grant's intimate friend, and personal secretary when Grant was president. He was brevetted major and lieutenant colonel for gallantry in the Mexican War, and he served fourteen years on duty in Texas and the Southwest frontier. At the 1st battle of Bull Run in July 1861, Porter commanded the 1st Brigade of General David Hunter's Division which sustained 464 casualties; after the wounding of Hunter, Porter commanded the division itself. During General George B. McClellan's 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, Porter was Provost Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac. In the fall of 1862, he was ordered to Harrisburg, Pa. to aid in organizing and forwarding recruits. Then he was charged with enforcing the draft in Pennsylvania and appointed Provost Marshal General of the state. After serving as commander of the depot for drafted men at Philadelphia, Porter was relieved of command on July 18, 1863 due to his poor health which had been badly compromised by the hardships he suffered while on duty during his army service on the Indian frontier. General Porter moved to Paris, France, in an attempt to improve his deteriorating health, however, he died at his home there on January 3, 1872, and his remains were returned to the U.S. for burial in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.


<u>War Date Letter Signed</u>: 1 page, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4, in ink.


Head Quarters, Army of the Potomac

Office of the Pro.[vost] Mar.[shal] General

Camp near Yorktown, Va.

April 9th, 1862


Safeguard No. 4


A safeguard is hereby granted to the House, property & Family of William B. Martin, of York County, Va. All officers and soldiers belonging to the Army of the United States are therefore commanded to respect this safeguard, and to afford if necessary protection to the house, property & family of the said William B. Martin.


By Command of Maj. Genl. McClellan

A. Porter

Brig. Genl.

Pro. Marshal Genl.

Army of Pot.[omac]


55th Article of the Rules & Articles of War. "Whosoever belonging to the Armies of the United States, employed in foreign parts, shall force a safeguard, shall suffer death."


Light age toning and foxing, with some light wear. Very fine. Nice content.  


<b>Medal of Honor Recipient for gallantry in the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia in 1863


Private Secretary of President Ulysses S. Grant


Signed on the back of the business card of former Colonel George H. Starr, 104th New York Infantry, who was captured at Gettysburg! Starr escaped from 3 different Rebel prisons!</b>


(1837-1921) Born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, he was the son of David R. Porter, a Governor of Pennsylvania, and was the first cousin of, Andrew Porter, a Union Civil War general. He graduated #3 in the West Point class of 1860. During the Civil War he served as Chief of Ordnance of the Army of the Potomac, the Department of the Ohio, and the Army of the Cumberland. He also served as aide-de-camp on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in the battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, fought on September 20, 1863. He was able to rally enough men to hold the ground at a critical moment in the battle when the Union lines had been broken. Exposed to heavy fire by the enemy, Porter held his position long enough to facilitate the escape of numerous wagon trains and batteries. Besides the Medal of Honor, Porter was cited for gallantry in the siege of Fort Pulaski, Ga.; the battle of the Wilderness, Va.; and in the action at New Market Heights, Va. He received promotion to brevet brigadier general, March 13, 1865, for his gallant and meritorious Civil War services in the field. After the war, he served as Private Secretary to his close friend and former commander, President Ulysses S. Grant, from 1869-73; Vice President of the Pullman Palace Car Company; was President of the Union League Club of New York, 1893-97, being a major influence in the construction of General Grant's Tomb, in New York City; and was the United States Ambassador to France, 1897-1905. He was awarded the Legion of Honor, by the French government in 1904. Porter was also the author of two books, "Campaigning With Grant," and "West Point Life."


<u>Card Signature</u>: 3 1/2 x 2 1/4, large and boldly signed in ink, Horace Porter. This autograph was signed on the reverse of the imprinted business card of George H. Starr, a New York attorney, and former Civil War officer who served in the 104th New York Infantry, and was captured at Gettysburg. The imprint reads: "Geo. H. Starr, Counsellor at Law, 56 Pine Street, New York City."  Excellent. Very desirable item related to the battle of Gettysburg, General Ulysses S. Grant, and the Medal of Honor.


Colonel George H. Starr, enlisted as a private at Geneseo, N.Y., on November 23, 1861, and was mustered into Co. D, 104th New York Infantry. He was promoted to sergeant on the same day; 2nd lieutenant, on March 6, 1862; and captain, on September 12, 1862. He was captured in action at the battle of Gettysburg, on July 1, 1863, and confined at Libby Prison, in Richmond, Va. Starr was one of the over 100 men who escaped through a tunnel on February 9, 1864, but was recaptured. He was then sent to Macon, Ga., where he was confined on April 1, 1864, and once again escaped, this coming on August 15, 1864. He was re-captured a third time, and confined at Camp Sorghum, Columbia, S.C., on September 1, 1864. He escaped again on October 10, 1864, after having been moved to Charleston, S.C.  He was discharged from the army on January 6, 1865; and promoted Colonel, N.Y. Volunteers, by brevet. After the war Starr studied law and practiced in New York City, and in Yonkers, N.Y.  


<b>United States Civil War Senator


President Pro Tempore during the President Andrew Johnson Impeachment Trial. If Johnson had been removed from office Senator Wade would have become the President of the U.S.A.


Image by Alexander Gardner, Washington, D.C.</b>


(1800-78) Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and commenced practice in Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio. A member of the Whig Party, he served in the Ohio State Senate, 1837-38, 1841-42; and was judge of the third judicial court of Ohio, 1847-51. He served as a United States Senator, from 1851-69, and was an opponent of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Wade joined the Republican Party which was just coming into existence as the Whigs collapsed. He established a reputation as one of the most radical American politicians of the era, favoring women's suffrage, trade union rights, and equality for African-Americans. During the Civil War, Wade was highly critical of President Abraham Lincoln's leadership. In opposition to Lincoln's post-war plans for the Confederacy, which he deemed too lenient and conciliatory, Wade sponsored the Wade–Davis Bill, which proposed strict terms for the re-admittance of Confederate states to the Union. He also helped pass the Homestead Act of 1862, and the Morrill Act of 1862. In 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson for his defiance of the "Tenure of Office Act," which prevented the president from removing civil officers without the senate's consent. The law was passed over Johnson’s veto by the Radical Republicans in Congress in their efforts to wrestle control of Reconstruction from President Johnson, with the purpose of the act aimed specifically at preventing him from removing Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, an ally of the Radical Republicans in the president's Cabinet. The Radicals vigorously opposed Johnson’s conciliatory policy toward the defeated South, and they gained enough strength in the congressional elections of 1866 to impose their military and civil programs upon the defeated Confederacy. Wade, who had gained much prominence at the start of the 40th Congress was named President pro tempore, and at that time he was #1 in line behind President Johnson to assume the duties of president! That meant that if Johnson were to be removed from the presidency, Wade would step in as the temporary President of the United States for the remainder of Johnson's term. There was no Vice President after Johnson's inauguration in 1865 after the assassination of President Lincoln. Wade's  unpopularity among his moderate colleagues continued to increase significantly which became a problem, and was a factor in Johnson's acquittal from the impeachment charges. Wade lost his Senate re-election bid in 1868, though remained active in law and politics until his death in 1878. Although frequently criticized for his radicalism during his era, Wade's contemporary reputation has been lauded for his lifelong unwavering and persistent commitment to civil rights, and racial equality. Wade died in Jefferson, Ohio, on March 2, 1878, and he is buried there. His son, James F. Wade, was a Union Brevet Brigadier General, who fought in the Civil War, and had an excellent military record.


Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Corners of the card mount have been trimmed. Bust view pose wearing a dark suit, vest and bow tie. Beautifully signed in ink on the front of the image, B.F. Wade, Ohio. Back mark: Alexander Gardner, Photographer to the Army of the Potomac. Galleries 511 Seventh Street and 332 Pennsylvania Av. Published by Philip & Solomons, Washington, D.C., with a 2 cents blue, George Washington, U.S. Internal Revenue Proprietary tax stamp on the verso. There is also a prominent vignette of the U.S. Capitol building at the upper center. Very sharp image, with a superb, bold autograph. Very desirable historical item considering the important position and role he played in the President Andrew Johnson impeachment trial, the very first presidential impeachment in American history. Scarce.

Autograph, General Franklin C. Smith

 

Autograph, General Andrew Porter $225.00

 

Autograph, General Horace Porter $75.00

 

CDV, Autographed by Senator Benjamin F. $350.00




<b>Colonel of the Rhode Island Militia he fought in the Civil War in 1861-62


Civil War Governor of Rhode Island


Civil War Senator from Rhode Island


Member of the President Andrew Johnson Impeachment Congress


Son-in-Law of President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase</b>


(1830-1915) Born in the Governor's Mansion in Cranston, Rhode Island, he was from an extremely wealthy and politically influential Rhode Island family. His Uncle William Sprague was the Governor of Rhode Island, and a U.S. Senator, and Congressman. His father, Amasa, a rich mill owner, was murdered on New Year's Eve in 1843, which became a major event of the period. A trial of the accused killer, John Gordon, was held and he was found guilty and executed. Sprague served as Governor of Rhode Island from 1859-63. During the Civil War he commanded a Rhode Island Militia Regiment, and a battery of light horse artillery, with rank of colonel, and was one of the first to answer President Lincoln's call for troops in 1861 to put down the Southern Rebellion. He fought gallantly at the 1st battle of Bull Run where he had his horse shot out from under him, and he also served at Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia. Offered rank of brigadier general in the Union army, Sprague turned it down to concentrate on his duties as governor. Sprague attended the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately backed President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and the Union war effort. He served as U.S. Senator from 1864-75, and was chairman of the Committee on Manufacture, and served on the Committee on Commerce, and on Military Affairs. In 1863, William Sprague married the vivacious socialite,  Kate Chase, the belle and acknowledged beauty of wartime Washington, and nemesis of the First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln. Kate was the daughter of President Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, who was the former Governor of Ohio. The couple continued to be the social leaders in Washington and Kate had high ambitions for her father to become President of the United States, and she spent a great deal of energy politicking and actively working on his nomination for president which was unsuccessful. However, the marriage became an unhappy one as Sprague drank heavily, and Kate had a notorious affair with New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. In 1873, her father Salmon P. Chase died, her husband lost his fortune in the "Panic of 1873," and later attacked Conkling in a drunken rage. The once darlings of Washington were divorced in 1882. Following his divorce, William Sprague married Dora I. Calvert of West Virginia in Staunton, Virginia, in 1883. Sprague died of complications from meningitis on September 11, 1915, in Paris, France, a day short of his 85th birthday. Following a simple funeral service in France, his 2nd wife Dora arranged for his body to be brought back to Rhode Island draped in an American flag. He received full military honors when laid to rest in the family tomb at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the last living senator who had served during the Civil War.    


<u>Signature With State</u>: 5 1/4 x 2 1/4, in ink, W. Sprague, R.I. Nice large bold autograph. Choice condition. Extremely desirable, and important Washington political personality during the Civil War, who also fought in the war while still holding the title as Governor of Rhode Island, a rarity.  


<b>Orders From General Winfield Scott Signed By McDowell With Rank


General McDowell commanded the Union army at the 1st battle of Bull Run, Virginia in July 1861</b>


(1818-1885) He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated in the West Point class of 1838 where one of his classmates was future Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, his future adversary at the Battle of First Bull Run, Va. After graduation he was commissioned a second lieutenant, and assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery.  From 1841 to 1845 he taught tactics at the United States Military Academy, and many of the students he taught went on to become Confederate generals who haunted him on the battlefields of the Civil War. He was awarded the rank of brevet captain for gallantry at the battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War. Between 1848 and 1861, McDowell served as a staff officer to high ranking military leaders, and developed experience in logistics and supply. He developed a close friendship with General Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, while serving on his staff. He also served under future Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston. He was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army on May 14, 1861, and was given command of the Army of Northeastern Virginia. By July, political pressure demanded an advance by his half trained mainly volunteer army on the Rebels under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard, at Manassas Junction, Va., where the railroad from Richmond to Alexandria, Va., met the line from the Shenandoah Valley. The resulting Union disaster at the 1st battle of Bull Run stemmed as much from misfortune as ineptitude although on paper General McDowell had a good and ambitious plan, but wasn't able to inspire his officers or troops. He later commanded a corps of the Army of the Potomac which was detached to protect Washington, and in the 2nd battle of Bull Run he commanded the 3rd Corps. On July 1, 1864, he was assigned to command the Department of the Pacific, and in 1865 he was appointed commander of the Department of California. He then was appointed to be the commander of the Department of the East, from 1868-72, and he was promoted to major general, U.S. Army, on November 25, 1872. McDowell succeeded General George G. Meade as commander of the Military Division of the South, on December 16, 1872, and remained in command until June 30, 1876. On July 1, 1876, he served as commander of the Division of the Pacific, and in 1882, Congress imposed a mandatory retirement age of 64 for military officers, and McDowell retired on October 14th of that year. After his retirement from the army, General McDowell exercised his fondness for landscape gardening, serving as Park Commissioner of San Francisco, California, until his death from a heart attack, on May 4, 1885. In this capacity he constructed a park in the neglected reservation of the Presidio, laying out drives that commanded views of the Golden Gate. He is buried in San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio of San Francisco, Ca.


<u>Document Signed With Rank</u>: 5 x 7 1/4, manuscript orders, very neatly written,  signed boldly by McDowell in ink, with rank.


Head Quarters of the Army

New York, April 26, 1856


General Orders

No. 3


General Order No. 21, dated Head Quarters of the Army, Adjutant General's Office, April 3, 1851, is hereby rescinded. 


By Command of Bvt. Lieut. Genl. Scott


Irvin McDowell,

Asst. Adjt. Genl.


There are 2 tiny punch holes at the left edge from when this order was filed in a General Orders book. They do not affect the content in any way. Light age toning and edge wear. Very bold autograph of Irvin McDowell as Assistant Adjutant General of the United States Army. This order was issued by Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, future commander-in-chief of all United States Armies at the outbreak of the Civil War, and hero of the War of 1812, and the Mexican War. McDowell of course would soon become a prominent Union major general during the Civil War leading the Union army at the 1st Battle of Bull Run, Virginia in 1861. There is a small imprinted descriptive text affixed to the very top edge of the document which is well away from any of the content. Very fine, and desirable Union autograph. Uncommon in manuscript format.  


<b>Colonel of the 12th Virginia Infantry


Wounded 3 times during the Civil War; at the Battles of 2nd Manassas, the Wilderness, and at the Crater, Petersburg, Virginia


Document Signed</b>


(1818-99) Born in Chesterfield County, Va., he served as a lieutenant of the 1st Virginia Volunteers during the Mexican War. As a captain of Virginia Militia he was officer of the day at the hanging of John Brown in 1859. Two years later, as a major of the 4th Virginia Battalion, Weisiger took his battalion to the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia and occupied the city. Entering the Confederate Army as colonel of the 12th Virginia Infantry, on May 9, 1861, he served on the lower Peninsula until the spring of 1862, when his regiment was attached to the Army of Northern Virginia in the brigade of General William Mahone. With his command he fought at Seven Pines, the Seven Days Battles, and at 2nd Manassas where he was severely wounded and disabled until July 1863. At the the battle of the Wilderness, on May 6, 1864, he succeeded General Mahone in command of the brigade, where he was wounded, and was commissioned brigadier general. He also saw action at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. At the battle of the Crater, at Petersburg, on July 30, 1864, Weisiger greatly distinguished himself as he and General William Mahone led the Confederate counterattack. Both generals were largely responsible for the complete victory that followed, Weisiger being wounded in the battle. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Weisiger was wounded three times during the war, and had two horses shot out from under him. After the war, Weisiger returned to Petersburg, Virginia where he was a banker. He moved his business to Richmond, Virginia, where he died on February 23, 1899. He is buried at Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, Virginia.


<u>Document Signed</u>: 8 x 3 3/4, imprinted form, filled out in ink, with an orange overprint at the center. Has vignettes of a railroad train at left and a woman at the upper right. Has a 3 cents green George Washington Internal Revenue For Exchange stamp at upper edge. Certificate of Deposit. Chartered by the State of Virginia. Petersburg, Va., Apl. 13, 1871. Miss F.S. Hardy has deposited in the Citizen's Savings Bank, Two hundred Dollars in Currency payable on demand in like funds to the otder of herself on the return of this Certificate properly endorsed with interest at the rate of Six per cent per annum. Signed at the lower center by the bank president, and at the right, D.A. Weisiger as Cashier. Complete with endorsements on the verso. Nice large signature of Weisiger. Very slight paper loss at upper right edge, not affecting any of the content. Very nice, ornate  Petersburg, Virginia bank deposit receipt. Very desirable Confederate general's autograph.   


<b>Rare war date General N.P. Banks letter from the 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign to General John P. Hatch regarding the movements of his cavalry


United States Congressman from Massachusetts


Member of the President Andrew Johnson Impeachment Congress


United States Speaker of the House


Governor of Massachusetts</b>


(1816-1894) Born at Waltham, Massachusetts. He was Speaker of the Massachusetts House, presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1853, and the same year was elected to the U.S. Congress, the first of ten terms. Elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1856, Banks showed moderation in deciding among factions during the bitter slavery debates. In 1858 he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, serving until January 1861, when President Abraham Lincoln appointed him a Major General of Volunteers after Banks offered his services. Many West Point officers could not understand this appointment considering that Banks had substandard military qualifications for the job of a field commander. He did contribute immeasurably in recruits, morale, money and propaganda to the Federal cause however. He was defeated by General Stonewall Jackson in the celebrated 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign with the loss of 30% of his force, and again by Jackson at Cedar Mountain, Va. Banks saw  service during the Vicksburg campaign, and commanded the siege and capture of Port Hudson, La., and also commanded the Red River campaign. General Banks undertook a number of steps intended to facilitate the Reconstruction plans of President Lincoln in Louisiana. When Banks arrived in New Orleans, the atmosphere was somewhat hostile to the Union owing to some of General Benjamin F. Butler's actions. Banks moderated some of Butler's policies, freeing civilians that Butler had detained and reopening churches whose ministers refused to support the Union. He recruited large numbers of African Americans for the military, and instituted formal works and education programs to organize the many slaves who had left their plantations. After the war Banks returned to his political career. He died on September 1, 1894, at Waltham, Mass., at the age of 84. Fort Banks in Winthrop, Massachusetts, built in the late 1890s, was named for him. A statue of him stands in Waltham's Central Square, and Banks Street in New Orleans is named after him.


<u>Civil War Letter Signed</u>: 7 3/4 x 9 3/4, in ink.


Head Quarters- 21 July [1862] 9 P.M.


Brigadier General Hatch

Culpeper, Virginia


Dear Sir-


I enclose to you important papers tonight. Undertake the enterprise if it be in human power. You will not regard of course the request for the return of a Squadron of cavalry if you start so impertinent an enterprise. Do not let any obstacles impede your march. Enclosed you will find a copy of Colonel [Henry] Anisunsel's  Report received at 8:45 tonight. Keep us advised & whoever is at Culpeper should report constantly.


Very truly yours,

N.P. Banks

M.[ajor] G.[eneral]


Excellent condition, and content! General Banks is common to find in post war letters and autographs, but rarely do you find his war date letters with any significant content in them. This is one of the best I've found to date discussing his campaign against Rebel General Stonewall Jackson during his celebrated 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Rare and very desirable!


<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: The recipient of this letter was General John P. Hatch who was in command of the cavalry forces of General Nathaniel P. Banks during the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Hatch would later be badly wounded in the September 1862 Battle at South Mountain, Maryland, in the Antietam Campaign.


The Colonel whose report that General Banks is talking about in this letter was Colonel Henry Anisunsel, of the 1st West Virginia Cavalry, who also saw action in the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

Autograph, Governor William Sprague of R $125.00

 

Autograph, General Irvin McDowell $175.00

 

Autograph, General David A. Weisiger $150.00

 

Autograph, General Nathaniel P. Banks $650.00




<b>Letter Signed


Wounded and captured at the Battle of Booneville, Mississippi


Colonel of the 5th Michigan Cavalry in General Custer's Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg


Severely wounded during the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg


United States Senator from Michigan


U.S. Secretary of War under President William McKinley


Governor of Michigan</b>


(1836-1907) Born in Lafayette Township, Medina County, Ohio. He attended Richfield Academy, studied law in Akron, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. He enlisted in the Civil War on September 2, 1861, as a private, and was soon commissioned captain of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. In 3 years, he served in a remarkable 66 different battles and skirmishes. On July 1, 1862, at the Battle of Booneville, Mississippi, Alger attacked the enemy's rear with ninety men, and was wounded and taken prisoner, but he escaped the same day with the Confederates being soundly defeated. On October 16, 1862, he was promoted lieutenant colonel of the 6th Michigan Cavalry, and to colonel of the 5th Michigan Cavalry, on June 11, 1863. Colonel Alger led his regiment into the battle of Gettysburg as part of General George A. Custer's Michigan Brigade, and was cited for bravery in Custer's after battle cavalry report. He was severely wounded on July 8, 1863, at Boonsboro, Maryland, during the Union army's pursuit of General Robert E. Lee's retreating Army of Northern Virginia after their defeat at Gettysburg. He fought in General Phil Sheridan's 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, and on June 11th, at Trevillian Station, he captured a large force of Confederates with a brilliant cavalry charge. He was promoted to brevet brigadier, and brevet major general for his gallant Civil War record. In 1868, he was elected as the first commander of the Michigan Department of the Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1889 he was appointed the National Commander-in-Chief at the 23rd National GAR Encampment at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was also a member of the Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Alger was a leader of the "Boys in Blue," an organization of Union veterans formed to support Republican Party policies and candidates. Alger served as Governor of Michigan, 1885-87; as U.S. Secretary of War, 1897-99, in the administration of President William McKinley; and as U.S. Senator from Michigan, 1902-07. He died on January 24, 1907, at the age of 70, in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, in Detroit, Michigan. 



The recipient of General Alger's letter was Colonel William D. Mann, who was born in Sandusky, Ohio, on September 27, 1839. He was a 21 year old resident of Detroit, Michigan, when he enlisted on August 22, 1861, and was commissioned captain in Co. K, 1st Michigan Cavalry. On August 27, 1862, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the field and staff of the 5th Michigan Cavalry, which was Colonel Alger's regiment. On December 1, 1862, he was promoted to rank of colonel, and commissioned into the field and staff of the 7th Michigan Cavalry. After the war he lived in New York City, where General Alger sent him this letter.   


<u>Typed Letter Signed</u>: 5 1/2 x 8 1/4, signed in ink.


R.A. Alger

Detroit, Mich.


April 11, 1902


Col. W.D. Mann:


I wish to thank you for the cutting from "Town Topics" entitled "The Literary Show" forwarded to me at Atlantic City, which came just before we left and has been enjoyed by my whole family very much.


We arrived home to-day via Chicago.


Sincerely yours,

R.A. Alger


Col. W.D. Mann,

c/o "Town Topics"

New York, N.Y.


Very nice, large autograph of Alger. Minor age toning, and light wear. Very desirable, hard fighting Union Civil War officer related to the famous brigade of General George Armstrong Custer whose command he fought with at the Battle of Gettysburg, and was severely wounded chasing General Lee's army out of Pennsylvania in July 1863.

 


<b>He was given the extremely high honor of receiving the ceremonial surrender of the stacked arms of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House


War Period Signature With Rank</b>


(1834-93) Born in Binghamton, New York, he was educated in a local academy, and then studied law in Utica. He passed his bar examination in 1858, and initially established his law practice in Binghamton before moving it to Elmira shortly before the Civil War erupted. Bartlett was elected captain of the 27th New York Infantry in May 1861, and  after only a few weeks of training, Bartlett and the regiment saw their first fighting at the 1st Battle of Bull Run. When Colonel Henry W. Slocum, commanding the 27th N.Y.V.  was incapacitated by a wound, Bartlett assumed command of the 27th New York for the rest of the fight. His aggressive actions to guard the rear during the subsequent retreat were rewarded when on September 21st he was promoted to be colonel of the regiment. He went on to fight in nearly every battle of the Army of the Potomac from his initial actions at 1st Bull Run, throughout the army's Civil War service right up through the end of the Appomattox campaign, with the exception of the 2nd Battle of Bull Run where his troops were not engaged. Repeatedly commended by his superiors, he progressed from the command of a regiment, to that of a division, and was highly praised for his heroism at the Battles of Gaines' Mill, Crampton's Gap, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Salem Church, during the Chancellorsville campaign. Bartlett was promoted to brevet major general in early 1865, and on the morning of April 12, 1865, he was given the extremely high honor of receiving the ceremonial surrender of the stacked arms of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. He remained in the Union army on occupation duty in the South during the early days of Reconstruction, and resigned his army commission on January 15, 1866. He initially returned to his law practice in New York, until 1867 when President Andrew Johnson called upon him to be the United States Ambassador to Sweden and Norway. He served in that post for two years, and then returned home in 1869. From 1885-89, he served as Deputy Commissioner of Pensions under President Grover Cleveland. Bartlett suffered with rheumatism caused by exposure during the Civil War, and he died on January 14, 1893, in Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of 58. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia. The Grand Army of the Republic honored him by naming their post in Binghamton, New York, after General Bartlett.  


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 3 3/4 x 2 1/4, in ink, Respectfully, Your Obdt. Servt., Jos. J. Bartlett, Brig. Gen., Comdg. 1st Div., 5th Corps. There is a very thin stain along the right edge of the slip of paper. This does not touch upon any of Bartlett's handwriting. Very nice war period autograph of this desirable Union general.   


<b>Colonel of the 126th New York Infantry


Mortally wounded in action at the Battle of Gettysburg while repulsing Pickett's Charge


United States Congressman from New York</b>


(1813-63) Born in Greenville, New York, where he attended the public schools. He moved to Herkimer County, N.Y. in 1832, and then moved to Shandaken in 1838, where Sherrill owned a tannery. He entered local politics, holding several political offices, and served as a major in the New York State Militia. He was elected as a Whig to the United States Congress, serving from 1847 to 1849, and he was a member of the New York State Senate in 1854 and 1855. During the Civil War, he organized the 126th New York Infantry in August 1862 and became its first colonel. His regiment was among the troops defending Harpers Ferry against General Joseph B. Kershaw's Confederate brigade of General Lafayette McLaws's division during the 1862 Maryland Campaign. He was severely wounded with a gunshot wound through his lower jaw in fighting on Maryland Heights during the Battle of Harpers Ferry. Colonel Sherrill was captured and later paroled. The wound never fully healed, but he temporarily rejoined his regiment at Union Mills, Virginia, in October 1862. After a furlough for further recuperation, he returned for active field duty on January 27, 1863. He commanded the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 2nd Corps, after the death of Colonel George L. Willard's on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg. Colonel Sherrill, in his first full day commanding the brigade, was positioned near Ziegler's Grove on Cemetery Ridge, where he was in position to repulse Pickett's Charge, and was mortally wounded on July 3rd by a musket shot. Carried off the field by men of the 39th New York Infantry, he was taken to the 11th Corps field hospital, where he died about 8:00 a.m. the next day. His body was sent by the regimental surgeon to Baltimore for embalming. He was buried at Washington Street Cemetery at Geneva, Ontario County, New York.


<u>Signature with Place</u>: 6 1/2 x 1 1/2, in ink, Eliakim Sherrill, Shandaken, N. York. Very fine. Desirable Gettysburg colonel mortally wounded during Pickett's Charge.  


<b>War Date Document Signed</b>


(1827-1894) Born in Carrollton, Illinois, he graduated in the West Point class of 1847 and was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Artillery. He served during the Mexican War under General Winfield Scott, and was later on frontier duty and garrison duty as an assistant to Major George H. Thomas. He was adjutant at the United States Military Academy from 1854 to 1859, under Colonel Robert E. Lee. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commanding a battery of light artillery in the defenses of Washington, when he was assigned as chief of staff to General Irvin McDowell serving in the Battle of 1st Bull Run. Afterwards he served as chief of staff under General Don Carlos Buell, in the Army the Ohio, taking part in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and the pursuit of General Braxton Bragg's army in Kentucky. Fry was appointed Provost Marshal General of the United States Army, on March 17, 1863, and promoted to rank of brigadier general. General Ulysses S. Grant was quoted as saying that General Fry was the officer best fitted to handle the position. General James B. Fry was brevetted to brigadier general, and major general, in the Regular U.S. Army, for faithful, meritorious, gallant and distinguished service during the Civil War. After the war Fry remained on active duty in the Regular U.S. Army, and served as the adjutant general of the Division of the Pacific, and as adjutant general of the Department of the East, until his retirement from the Army on July 1, 1881. General Fry died in Newport, Rhode Island, and was buried at the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia. 


<u>War Date Document Signed</u>: 8 x 10, in ink, on imprinted letter sheet. 


Paymaster General's Office,

Jany. 27, 1863


The Adjutant General will please state the date of Major Levi C. Turner, Judge Advocate acceptance.


H.J. Brooke


Adjutant General's Office,

February 6, 1863


Accepted the 31st day of July 1863.


J.B. Fry

Assistant Adjutant General


Light age toning, light edge and fold wear. Very fine. Please note that the dark spots you see on the web site illustration are not as dark on the original document. They were caused by the scanner.

Autograph, General Russell A. Alger $150.00

 

Autograph, General Joseph J. Bartlett $175.00

 

Autograph, Colonel Eliakim Sherrill

 

Autograph, General James B. Fry $125.00




<b>Known as "Hancock the Superb"


Commanded the 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg where he was severely wounded while repulsing Pickett's Charge!


United States Presidential Candidate in 1880


Autograph Letter Signed to U.S. Congressman William E. Robinson</b>


(1824-1886) Winfield Scott Hancock and his identical twin brother, Hilary Baker Hancock, were born in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, a hamlet just northwest of Philadelphia. Winfield was named after Winfield Scott, a prominent U.S. general in the War of 1812, and the Mexican War, and who was commander-in-chief of the Union armies at the beginning of the Civil War. He graduated in the West Point class of 1844, and earned a brevet for gallantry in the Mexican War. Hancock played a gallant role in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, and in the 1862 Maryland campaign which climaxed with the bloody battle of Antietam, Maryland. He greatly distinguished himself in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. During the battle of Gettysburg, General Hancock commanded the 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac. His decisive actions on July 1, 1863 helped to save the strategic position of Culp's Hill for General George G. Meade's army. On July 3rd, his corps became the focal point for the celebrated Pickett's Charge in which he was seriously wounded, but refused to leave the battlefield until the victory was secured. After his recovery, he went on to fight in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, Va., and earned the sobriquet of "Hancock The Superb." At the close of the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the execution of the conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. After the executions, Hancock was assigned command of the newly organized Middle Military Department, headquartered in Baltimore. In 1866, on General U.S. Grant's recommendation, Hancock was promoted to major general and was transferred, later that year, to command of the military Department of the Missouri, which included the states of Missouri, and Kansas, and the territories of Colorado and New Mexico. He reported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he took up his new position. Soon after arriving, he was assigned by General William T. Sherman to lead an expedition to negotiate with the Cheyenne and Sioux, with whom relations had worsened since the Sand Creek massacre. The negotiations got off to a bad start, and after Hancock ordered the burning of an abandoned Cheyenne village in central Kansas, relations became worse than when the expedition had started. In 1872, General Meade died, leaving Hancock the army's senior major general. In 1880, he was the Democratic nominee for the Presidency of the United States. He was narrowly defeated by another ex-Civil War General, the soon to be assassinated President James A. Garfield. The last public act performed by General Hancock was his oversight of the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant in 1885, and his organizing and leading of Grant's nine mile funeral procession in New York City. From Grant's home at Mount McGregor, New York, to its resting-place in Riverside Park, the casket containing Grant's remains was in the charge of General Hancock. He died in 1886, at Governors Island, New York, while in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic. He is buried in Montgomery Cemetery, near Norristown, Pa.


<u>Autograph Letter Signed</u>: 5 1/4 x 8, in ink.


Governor's Island, New York

April 10, 1885


Dear Sir:


Please accept my thanks for the copy of the "Congressional Record" containing your recent speech entitled - American Citizenship - which you have kindly sent me.


I am Very Sincerely,

Yours,

Winfd. S. Hancock


The Hon. E. Robinson, M.C.

Washington, D.C.


Small archival tape repair on the reverse.  Very fine. Neatly written with nice large autograph. Very popular and desirable Union general.


<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: William E. Robinson, the recipient of General Hancock's letter, was born near Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City in November 1836, graduated from Yale College in 1841, was admitted to the bar in 1854, and practiced law in New York City. President Abraham Lincoln appointed him assessor of Internal Revenue for the third district of New York in 1862. He served in the United States Congress from New York, 1867-69; and 1881-85. Robinson died in Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 23, 1892, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.    


<b>Famous for his American flag dispatch, "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot!" This became a clarion call in the North during the Civil War!


New York Secretary of State


United States Senator from New York


Governor of New York


Mathew Brady image plus signature</b> 


(1798-1879) Born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, he joined the U.S. Army in 1813, and served until 1828.  In 1830, he was appointed by Governor Enos T. Throop as Adjutant General of the New York State Militia. Was New York Secretary of State, 1833-39, and served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1842, and was elected to the United States Senate, serving 1845-49. In 1853, Dix was president of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. He was Postmaster of New York City 1860-61. In 1861, President Buchanan appointed him U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and on January 29, 1861, he made his famous American flag dispatch to a treasury official in New Orleans, "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot!" Commissioned Major General by President Abraham Lincoln, on May 16, 1861, he was first on this list, thus outranking all other volunteer officers during the Civil War. At the beginning of the war he arrested six members of the Maryland General Assembly and prevented Maryland from seceding from the Union, which earned him President Lincoln's gratitude and praise. That winter, he commanded an organization known as "Dix's Command" within General George B. McClellan's Department of the Potomac. Dix commanded the Department of Virginia from June 1862 until July 1863, and the Department of the East from July 1863 until April 1865. On July 22, 1862, General Dix and Confederate General Daniel H. Hill made an agreement for the general exchange of prisoners between the Union and Confederate armies. This agreement became known as the "Dix-Hill Cartel." It established a scale of equivalents, where an officer would be exchanged for a fixed number of enlisted men, and also allowed for the parole of prisoners, who would undertake not to serve in a military capacity until officially exchanged. The cartel worked well for a while, but it ended up breaking down when Confederate officials insisted on treating black prisoners as fugitive slaves and returning them to their previous owners. He made an important and distinguished contribution to the Union cause when he suppressed the 1863 New York City draft riots. General Dix was active in the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, which was part of his department. He served as the chairman of the 1866 National Union Convention. He was U.S. Minister to France, 1866-69, and Governor of New York, 1873-74.


<u>General John A. Dix Matted Display</u>: 8 x 10, chocolate brown mat board display, with two window openings to display a wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, (2 1/8 x 3 1/4 mat window opening) displaying a gorgeous full standing view of General Dix wearing a double breasted frock coat with epaulets, and rank of major general, with sword belt plate, and sash, and posing with his sword in front of him with the blade end on the studio floor. Excellent pose. Brady, N.Y. is printed in the photograph negative and can be seen at the lower right edge of the floor area. The back mark on the cdv is: E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, From a Photographic Negative in Brady' National Portrait Gallery. Displayed below his image is a beautiful, bold and large ink autograph, "John A. Dix" in a 3 x 3/4 window opening. This standard 8 x 10 mat size will allow you to place this wonderful pair of General Dix items in a nice frame of your own choosing. You will not need to have it custom framed since the mat size has been cut to a standard 8 x 10 size, and you can buy a nice frame at any local store that sells frames like a Michael's Craft Store, or Walmart for example. Very handsome and desirable display  that would look great framed on the wall of your office or Civil War den. Excellent condition.       


<b>Murdered Philip Barton Key II across the street from the White House!


Severely wounded at Gettysburg resulting in the amputation of his leg


Medal of Honor Recipient for heroism at the Battle of Gettysburg


United States Congressman & New York State Senator</b>


(1819-1914) Born in New York City, he was a controversial New York State senator and congressman. He first achieved national notoriety in 1859 when he shot down, in the shadows of the White House, his young wife's lover, Philip Barton Key, II, who was the son of the author of our national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner," Francis Scott Key. Sickles lawyer during the lurid trial was none other than Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln's future Secretary of War, who got him off. Sickles was acquitted after using "temporary insanity" as a legal defense for the first time in United States history. During the Civil War, Sickles served as a brigade, division, and corps commander, and fought in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, at Antietam, and Fredericksburg. At the Battle of Gettysburg, he commanded the 3rd Corps, of the Army of the Potomac, and was severely wounded on July 2, 1863, from cannon fire, the result being the amputation of his right leg. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle of Gettysburg. He saw no further field service as a result of his amputation. After the war, Sickles was appointed as a commander for military districts in the South during the Reconstruction period. He also served as U.S. Minister to Spain, 1869-74, under President Ulysses S. Grant. He was very instrumental in forming the Gettysburg National Military Park, and preserving the battlefield for posterity. Sickles political career was that of a New York State Senator, 1856-57; U.S. Congressman, 1857-61; and U.S. Congressman, 1893-95. He died on May 3, 1914, in New York City, at the age of 94. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 


<u>Document Signed</u>: 8 x 2 5/8, imprinted bank check, filled out by, and signed by Daniel E. Sickles, in ink. No. 342. New York, March 25, 1879. Bank of the Metropolis, 17 Union Square. Pay to L.M. Valdes, $40.00. Signed, D.E. Sickles. Typical cut and punch hole cancellation which does not touch the signature. Orange overprint, United States Internal Revenue, Two Cents at the center. There are two ink endorsements on the reverse including J.M. Valdes. Stamped in red oval, Payable Through N.Y. Clearing House Only, Island City Bank. Minor age toning and wear. Very fine. Very desirable Gettysburg, and Medal of Honor recipient's autograph.  


<b>Commander of the famous Confederate raider, the C.S.S. Alabama


Very Rare Mexican War era signature with sentiment, rank and date</b>


(1809-1877) Born in Charles County, Maryland, on Tayloe's Neck, he was a cousin of future Confederate general Paul J. Semmes. He graduated from Charlotte Hall Military Academy, and entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1826. During his early U.S. Naval service he cruised on various ships on duty in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the West Indies attempting to suppress piracy. During the Mexican War, he commanded the U.S.S. Somers in the Gulf of Mexico. In December 1846, a squall hit the ship while under full sail in pursuit of a vessel off Veracruz, and the Somers capsized and was lost along with 37 sailors. Semmes then served as lieutenant on the U.S.S. Raritan, accompanying the landing force at Veracruz, and he was dispatched inland to serve with the army proceeding to Mexico City. He was promoted to the rank of commander in 1855, and was assigned to lighthouse duties until 1860. Following the secession of Alabama from the Union, Semmes was offered a naval appointment by the provisional Confederate government, and he resigned his U.S. Naval commission the next day, February 15, 1861. After his appointment to the Confederate Navy as a commander, he was sent to New Orleans to convert the steamer Habana into the commerce raider, the C.S.S. Sumter. In June 1861, Commander Semmes, with the Sumter, outran the U.S.S. Brooklyn, breaching the Union blockade at New Orleans, thus launching his brilliant career as one of the greatest commerce raider captains in naval history. Semmes's command of the Sumter lasted only six months, but during that time he ranged wide, raiding U.S. commercial shipping in both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, his actions accounting for the loss of 18 merchant vessels, while always eluding pursuit by Union warships. By January 1862, the Sumter required a major overhaul. Semmes's crew surveyed the vessel while in neutral Gibraltar and determined that the repairs to her boilers were too extensive to be completed there. He was promoted to captain, and with several of his officers he traveled to England where he was ordered to the Azores to take up command, and oversee the coaling and outfitting with cannon of the newly built British steamer Enrica as a sloop-of-war, which thereafter became the famous Confederate commerce raider, the C.S.S. Alabama. Captain Semmes sailed on the Alabama from August 1862, to June 1864. His operations carried him from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, and into the Pacific to the East Indies. During this time the Alabama captured 65 U.S. merchantmen, and destroyed the U.S.S. Hatteras, off Galveston, Texas. The Alabama sailed back to the Atlantic and made port in Cherbourg, France, for a much-needed overhaul, and she was soon blockaded by the pursuing Union sloop-of-war, the U.S.S. Kearsarge. Captain Semmes took the Alabama out of Cherbourg on June 19, 1864, and met the Kearsarge in one of the most famous naval engagements of the Civil War. After receiving a fatal shell to the starboard waterline, which tore open a portion of Alabama's hull, causing her steam engine to explode from the shell's impact, Captain Semmes was forced to order the striking of his ship's Confederate  battle flag, and display a hand-held white flag of surrender to finally halt the engagement. As the Alabama was going down by the stern, the Kearsarge stood off at a distance, and observed at the orders of her Captain John A. Winslow who sent rescue boats for the survivors.  As his ship sank, the wounded Semmes threw his sword into the sea, depriving the Kearsarge's Captain Winslow of the traditional surrender ceremony of having it handed over to him as victor. He was rescued, along with forty-one of his crewmen, by the British yacht Deerhound and three French pilot boats. He and his forty-one men were taken to England where all but one recovered, while there they were hailed as naval heroes, despite the loss of the Alabama. From England, Semmes made his way back to America via Cuba and from there he made a safe shore landing on the Texas gulf coast. It took his small party several weeks of journeying through the war-devastated South before he was finally able to make his way to the Confederate capital at Richmond. He was promoted to rear admiral in February 1865, and during the last months of the war he commanded the James River Squadron from his flagship, the heavily armored ironclad C.S.S. Virginia II. With the fall of Richmond, in April 1865, Admiral Semmes supervised the destruction of all the squadron's nearby warships, and thereafter acted as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army, the implication being that he was appointed to that grade in an informal arrangement. After the destruction of the naval squadron, his sailors were turned into an infantry unit and dubbed the "Naval Brigade, with Semmes placed in command. His intention for the brigade was to join General Robert E. Lee's army in the field, but Lee's army was already cut off from Richmond, so most of Semmes's men boarded a train and escaped to join General Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina. Semmes and the Naval Brigade surrendered to General William T. Sherman with Johnston's army at Bennett Place, near Durham Station, North Carolina. He was subsequently paroled on May 1, 1865. Semmes's parole notes that he held commissions as both a brigadier general, and rear admiral in the Confederate States service when he surrendered with General Johnston's army. He insisted on his parole being written to include the brigadier general commission in anticipation of being charged with piracy by the United States government. The U.S. held Semmes as a prisoner after the war, but released him on parole, then later arrested him for treason on December 15, 1865. After a good deal of behind-the-scenes political machinations, all charges were eventually dropped, and he was finally released on April 7, 1866. After his release, Semmes worked as a professor of philosophy and literature at Louisiana State Seminary, now Louisiana State University, as a county judge, and then as a newspaper editor. He later returned to Mobile, and practiced law. Semmes is credited with helping to popularize the phrase "War Between the States" to refer to the American Civil War. In 1871, the citizens of Mobile, Alabama presented him with what became known as the "Raphael Semmes House," and it remained his residence until his untimely death in 1877 from complications that were caused by food poisoning from eating contaminated shrimp. Raphael Semmes was interred in Mobile's Old Catholic Cemetery. Semmes was 67 years old when he died. He was the author of "Service Afloat and Ashore During the Mexican War."          



<u>Mexican War Era Signature With Sentiment, Rank & Date</u>: 3 x 1 3/4, mounted to 5 x 3 period card. Boldly signed by Semmes in ink as follows: Yrs. truly, R. Semmes, Lieut., U.S.N., April 25th, 1845. ID written on the card, Rafael Semmes (1809-1877) Noted Confederate naval officer. Light age toning and some minor foxing. Very rare to find a Semmes autograph from this period of his naval career. Many of the card signatures that you find are post Civil War period. Very desirable autograph in this early format as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy. 



<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: In 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed from Mexico, and it was admitted as the 28th state in the U.S., on December 29, 1845. Not long afterwards hostilities erupted between the two countries and the Mexican-American War commenced ending in 1848.

Autograph, General Winfield S. Hancock $395.00

 

Autograph & CDV, General John A. Dix Mat $195.00

 

Autograph, General Daniel E. Sickles $150.00

 

Autograph, Admiral Raphael Semmes, Confe




<b>The gallant Union commander of Fort Sumter, South Carolina who withstood a 36 hour bombardment before surrendering the fort!


Autograph Note Signed</b>


(1805-1871) Born at "Soldier's Retreat," the Anderson family estate near Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated in the West Point class of 1825, and participated in the Black Hawk Indian War, in Florida. In the Mexican War, he fought in the Siege of Vera Cruz, the Battle of Cerro Gordo, the Skirmish of Amazoque, and the Battle of Molino del Rey where he was severely wounded while assaulting the Mexican fortifications, for which he received a brevet promotion to major. In November 1860, he was ordered to Charleston Harbor to take command of the three United States forts there; Castle Pickney, Fort Moultrie, and Fort Sumter, and all troops in the area, in the face of South Carolina's imminent secession. Major Anderson refused a formal demand for his surrender and in the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was bombarded by Rebel cannons, and the Civil War began. His small garrison withstood 36 hours under heavy fire before being compelled to surrender. Robert Anderson became a national hero in the North for his heroic stand. Ironically, the Confederate artillery attack was commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard, who had been Anderson's student at West Point. He was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular U.S. Army, effective May 15, 1861. Anderson took the Fort Sumter's 33 star American flag with him to New York City, where he participated in a huge patriotic rally at Union Square that was the largest public gathering in North America until then. General Anderson then went on a highly successful recruiting tour of the North, with his next assignment placing him in another sensitive political position as commander of the Department of Kentucky, subsequently renamed the Department of the Cumberland, in a border state that had officially declared neutrality between the Union and the Confederacy. Anderson's last military assignment was a brief period as commanding officer of Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1863. Anderson officially retired from the Army on October 27, 1863 "for disability resulting from long and faithful service, and wounds and disease contracted in the line of duty," but he continued to serve on the staff of the general commanding the Eastern Department, headquartered in New York City, from October 27, 1863, to January 22, 1869. On February 3, 1865, Anderson was brevetted to the rank of major general for "gallantry and meritorious service" in the defense of Fort Sumter. General Robert Anderson personally raised that same United States flag over Fort Sumter on April 14, 1865, exactly four years after he had hauled it down. Hours after the joyous ceremony of April 14, 1865, the country went into deep mourning as John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. General Anderson died in Nice, France, on October 26, 1871, as he had been there seeking a medical cure for his ailments. He was 66 years old at the time of his death, and was buried at the United States Military Academy, at West Point, New York.


<u>Autograph Note Signed</u>: 5 x 8, on General Anderson's personal letter sheet, written by him in ink in his own hand. This is the general's reply to an autograph request from a Mrs. Pratt.


<b><u>North Conway, N.H.</b></u>


Sept. 21, 1868


Mrs. Pratt


Dear Madam, 


I send with pleasure the autograph you asked for.


Yours respectfully,


Robert Anderson


There is a large embossed "A" at the upper center for his surname Anderson. The body of the letter has some light areas, but every single word is easily readable. Fold wear. His autograph, "Robert Anderson" is bold and very neatly written. Anderson is one of the most popular, and essential autographs to have in every Civil War autograph collection! His name is forever synonymous with Fort Sumter, and the commencement of the Civil War in April 1861. Extremely desirable. 




    

 


<b>Colonel 1st Michigan Infantry


Medal of Honor Recipient for distinguished gallantry at the 1st Battle of Bull Run where he was wounded and captured</b>


(1823-1907) Born in Detroit, Michigan, he graduated in the West Point class of 1847. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Artillery, and would subsequently serve in the United States Army in various capacities over a period of forty years. Willcox fought in the Mexican War, he fought against the Indians on the frontier, and he fought in the Third Seminole Indian War in Florida. At the commencement of the Civil War in 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 1st Michigan Infantry. At the 1st Battle of Bull Run, he was wounded and captured while in command of a brigade, remaining a prisoner for more than a year, part of the time as a hostage for Rebel privateers who the U.S. government had threatened to hang as pirates. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for distinguished gallantry at 1st Bull Run, where he voluntarily led repeated charges until he was wounded and taken prisoner. On the day of his release he was commissioned a brigadier general, and he led a division at the Battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Knoxville, and in General Grant's Overland campaign against Richmond in the summer of 1864. President Lincoln nominated Willcox for promotion to brevet major general, August 1, 1864. Following the Siege of Petersburg, Va., he led the first troops to enter Petersburg, before ending the war fighting in the North Carolina campaign. He was mustered out of the U.S. Volunteers on January 15, 1866. After the war, Willcox returned to the Regular U.S. Army serving as Colonel in the 29th U.S. Infantry Regiment, and as brevet brigadier general in the 12th U.S. Infantry, and Commander of the Department of Arizona. It was in this capacity that he put down the raids of the Apache Indians. For his service in the West, he was awarded a Vote of Thanks by the Arizona Legislature. From 1886-87, he was head of the Department of the Missouri, and he retired on April 16, 1887. After his retirement, Willcox was Governor of the Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C., from 1889-92. He was a member of the District of Columbia Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He died in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, at 84 years of age, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 4 x 1 1/2, in ink, O.B. Willcox, Brig. & Bvt. Maj. Genl., U.S. Army. Very fine. Boldly written. Very desirable Civil War Medal of Honor recipient's autograph.  


<b>General-in-Chief of the U.S. Armies during the Civil War, 1861-62


Democratic Presidential Candidate that was defeated by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864


Governor of New Jersey</b> 


(1826-85) Hailed as the "Young Napoleon," McClellan was thought to have of the greatest military minds of his generation. He was born in Philadelphia, the son of a prominent surgeon, Dr. George McClellan, the founder of Jefferson Medical College. One of McClellan's great-grandfathers was General Samuel McClellan of Woodstock, Connecticut, a brigadier general who fought in the Revolutionary War. George Brinton McClellan graduated 2nd in his class of 59 cadets at West Point in 1846, where he was an energetic and ambitious cadet, deeply interested in strategic principles.  He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His closest friends at the Academy were southerners George Pickett, Dabney Maury, Cadmus Wilcox, and A.P. Hill. After graduation, he served with distinction in the Mexican War, as an engineering officer who was frequently subject to enemy fire, and was appointed a brevet first lieutenant for his services at Contreras, and Churubusco, and to captain for his service at Chapultepec. He performed reconnaissance missions for General Winfield Scott, a close friend of McClellan's father. McClellan's experiences in the Mexican War would shape his military and political life. He learned that flanking movements that were used by General Scott at Cerro Gordo are often better than frontal assaults, and the value of siege operations against Veracruz was another well learned lesson. He witnessed Scott's success in balancing political with military affairs, and his good relations with the civil population as he invaded, enforcing strict discipline on his soldiers to minimize damage to civilian property. In the fall of 1852, McClellan published a manual on bayonet tactics that he had translated from the original French. He also received an assignment to the Department of Texas, with orders to perform a survey of Texas rivers and harbors. In 1853, he participated in the Pacific Railroad surveys, ordered by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, to select an appropriate route for the planned transcontinental railroad. Because of his political connections and his mastery of French, McClellan received the assignment to be an official observer of the European armies in the Crimean War in 1855, as part of the Delafield Commission, led by Richard Delafield. Traveling widely, and interacting with the highest military commands and royal families, McClellan observed the siege of Sevastopol. Upon his return to the United States in 1856, he requested an assignment in Philadelphia to prepare his report, which contained a critical analysis of the siege and a lengthy description of the organization of the European armies. He also wrote a manual on cavalry tactics that was based on Russian cavalry regulations. Capitalizing on his experience with railroad assessment, he became chief engineer and vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad, and then president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, McClellan was appointed major general, and he played an important role in raising the Army of the Potomac, and proved to be a brilliant military organizer, administrator, and trainer of men, but as the war developed he proved to be an officer totally lacking in the essential skills and qualities of successful command of large forces in battle. He served as the Commanding General of the United States Army, 1861-62. General McClellan organized, and led the Union Army in the 1862 Virginia Peninsula campaign in southeastern Virginia which was the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater of the war with the capture of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., as their objective.  McClellan was somewhat successful against Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of General Robert E. Lee to command the Army of Northern Virginia turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a Union defeat, but Lee failed to destroy McClellan's Army of the Potomac, and suffered a bloody repulse at Malvern Hill, Va. General McClellan and President Abraham Lincoln developed a mutual distrust for each other, and McClellan was privately derisive of Lincoln. Lincoln on the other hand accused McClellan of being too cautious in the field and once asked "Little Mac" if he was not going to use his army if he (Lincoln could borrow it). Lincoln removed him from command in November 1862, in the aftermath of the bloody battle of Antietam, Md., fought on September 17, 1862, which was the single bloodiest day in U.S. military history. A contributing factor in this decision was McClellan's failure to pursue Lee's army following the tactically inconclusive, but strategic Union victory at the Battle of Antietam outside of little town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. McClellan went on to become the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1864 presidential election against the incumbent Republican President Lincoln. The effectiveness of his campaign was damaged when General McClellan repudiated his party's platform, which promised an end to the war, and negotiations with the Confederacy. Consequently he was beaten by Lincoln. He later served as the Governor of New Jersey from 1878-81. The concluding chapter of his political career was his strong support in 1884 for President Grover Cleveland. He was interested in the position of Secretary of War in Cleveland's cabinet, but did not get it.  McClellan devoted his final years to traveling and writing; producing his memoirs, 'McClellan's Own Story," in which he stridently defended his conduct during the war. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 58 at Orange, New Jersey. He was buried at Riverview Cemetery in Trenton.


<u>War Period Signature With Rank</u>: 2 3/4 x 1, in ink, Geo. B. McClellan, Maj. Gen. Com., U.S.A. Very bold autograph of "Little Mac." Always a very desirable Civil War autograph, one of the Union army's first major field commanders in the war, who was forever linked with President Abraham Lincoln, first for their squabbles in Washington, D.C. in 1861-62, after the bloody battle of Antietam, Md., in 1862, and in the 1864 presidential election. 


 


<b>Medal of Honor Recipient for conspicuous gallantry at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri in 1861


United States Secretary of War


Commanding General of the U.S. Army</b>


(1831-1906) Born in Gerry, Chautauqua County, New York, he graduated in the West Point class of 1853, and was commissioned brevet second lieutenant in the artillery. Schofield returned to West Point as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy from 1855-60. At the start of the Civil War, he was major of the 1st Missouri Infantry, and chief of staff to General Nathaniel Lyon at the battle of Wilson's Creek, where he served gallantly, and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. On November 21, 1861, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and charged with the command of all Union militia regiments in the state of Missouri. From October 1862, to April 1863, he commanded the Army of the Frontier. He commanded a division of the 14th Corps in Tennessee from May 1863 until January 1864, and fought in the Atlanta campaign in command of the Army of the Ohio. He inflicted a bloody and crippling repulse of General John Bell Hood at Franklin, Tennessee, and again virtually destroyed General Hood at Nashville. He then participated with General William T. Sherman in the 1865 Carolina's campaign which terminated with the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston. After the war, President Andrew Johnson sent General Schofield on a special diplomatic mission to France, urging withdrawal of French troops in Mexico. During Reconstruction, President Johnson appointed Schofield to serve as military governor of Virginia and of the First Military District. Thus, he oversaw the elections, in which blacks and whites voted, which resulted in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868. Schofield served as U.S. Secretary of War, 1868-69. He was promoted to major General in the Regular Army on March 4, 1869, the same day General Ulysses S. Grant was sworn in as president of the United States. He then served for a year as head of the Department of Missouri, the Army's second largest military department, and after the death of General George H. Thomas, he succeeded him in commanding the Military Division of the Pacific, the country's largest department. Schofield served as the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, 1876-81. He was the Commanding General of the United States Army, 1888-95. General Schofield died at St. Augustine, Florida on March 4, 1906, at the age of 74. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 


<u>Card Signature With Rank</u>: 4 x 2 1/2, in ink, J.M. Schofield, Lieut. Genl., U.S.A. Beautiful, bold and large. Very desirable Medal of Honor autograph.

Autograph, General Robert Anderson $495.00

 

Autograph, General Orlando B. Willcox $125.00

 

Autograph, General George B. McClellan $300.00

 

Autograph, General John M. Schofield




<b>War Date Document Signed


Report of the shooting death of a negro servant while General Couch's troops were guarding the property of a Virginian!</b>


(1822-97) Born on a farm in Putnam County, New York, he graduated in the West Point class of 1846, along with George B. McClellan, Stonewall Jackson, and 46 other graduates who fought in the Civil War including 19 who became full generals for either the Union or Confederate armies. Couch fought in the Mexican War and was brevetted to 1st lieutenant for gallantry at the Battle of Buena Vista. He next participated in the Seminole Indian Wars of 1849-50. On June 15, 1861, shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, Couch was appointed Colonel of the 7th Massachusetts Infantry, and he was promoted to brigadier general on August 9, 1861. He compiled a distinguished record in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign as a division commander in the 4th Corps, serving at Yorktown and Williamsburg, and during the Battle of Seven Pines, Oak Grove, and Malvern Hill during the Seven Days battles. He was promoted to major general on July 4, 1862. He then commanded his division at Antietam, and the 2nd Corps at Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Couch commanded the Department of the Susquehanna during the Gettysburg Campaign in 1863, and later was transferred to the western army commanding a division of the 22nd Army Corps with distinction in the Franklin & Nashville, Tennessee campaign, and in the 1865 Carolina's campaign. Couch returned to civilian life in Taunton, Mass., after the war, where he ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1865.  Couch moved to Connecticut in 1871, where he served as the Quartermaster General, and then Adjutant General, for the state militia. He joined the Aztec Club of 1847 by the right given him for his Mexican War service, and he also joined the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He died in Norwalk, Connecticut, on February 12, 1897, at the age of 74, and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton, Mass. 


<u>1862 War Date Document Signed</u>: 7 3/4 x 10, in ink. 


Hd. Qrs., Couch’s Division


Aug. 21, 1862


Capt. C.C. Suydam


Assist. Adjt, Gen.


Hd. Qrs. 4th Corps



Sir:


I have the honor to state that while my Division lay near Lebanon Church, on the 19th inst., a black man employed as servant to one of the officers of the 102d Penna. Vol., was shot dead by the accidental discharge of a carbine in the hands of one of my Sentinels placed over the property of a Mr. Bryan, living in that vicinity, and having a safe guard from Gen. Van Allen.


I am Sir,


Your obt. Servant,


D.N. Couch


Major General

 

Commanding 


Very bold and neatly written, with a nice large signature, "D.N. Couch," above his rank of Major General Commanding. The letter sheet shows some minor age toning and wear. Very fine. The content of this letter is extremely scarce as it reports the death of a black servant of a Union officer who was shot and killed by fire coming from the carbine of one of the Sentries of General Couch's Division as he was safe guarding the property of a Virginian!


Docket on the reverse: Hd. Qrs. Couch's Div., Aug. 22, 1862. D.N. Couch, Maj. Gen. Reports accident which occurred near his Hd. Qrs. of the 19th inst.


<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: The recipient of this document was Charles Crooke Suydam, Assistant Adjutant General, Hd. Qrs., 4th Corps. Suydam was 25 years old, when he enlisted at New York City, on September 27, 1861, and was commissioned a 1st lieutenant, in Co. L, 5th New York Cavalry. He was promoted to the U.S. Volunteers Adjutant General Depart, on March 6. 1862. He later served in the Field and Staff of the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry, until his resignation on November 15, 1864. He ended his Union Army service with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

 


<b>War Period Signature With Rank and Title


Attorney General of the State of New York</b>


(1815-81) Born in Sandy Hill, Washington County, New York, he was the son of U.S. Congressman Henry C. Martindale. He graduated #3 in the West Point class of 1835, and was appointed a brevet second lieutenant, but he resigned from the Army the next year to pursue a law career. He was admitted to the bar in 1838, and commenced practice in Batavia, New York. He served as District Attorney of Genesee County, N.Y., 1842-46, and 1848-51. On August 9, 1861, Martindale was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers in the Union Army, and was appointed to command a brigade in the Army of the Potomac. He fought throughout the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, and in November 1862, he was appointed to the post of Military Governor of Washington, D.C., a position he held until May 1864. He then returned to the battlefield commanding a division of General "Baldy" Smith's 18th Corps, at the Battles of Cold Harbor, Bermuda Hundred, and Petersburg, Va., subsequently commanding the corps itself until health problems forced him to resign in September 1864. At the end of the war he received promotion to brevet major general for his gallantry at the Battle of Malvern Hill, Va. After the war, Martindale was the Attorney General of New York State from 1866-69. In 1877, one of his clients tried to shoot him at his law office in Rochester, New York. He served as Vice President of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Solders for 11 years. He died on September 13, 1881, at the age of 66, in Nice, France, while on a trip abroad for his health. His remains were returned to the United States, and General Martindale was buried at the Batavia Cemetery, in Batavia, New York.


<u>War Period Signature With Rank and Title</u>: 3 x 1 1/2, in ink, J.H. Martindale, Brig. Genl. & Mil. Gov., Washington, D.C. Light age toning. Very fine autograph, circa 1862-64, while he was serving as the Military Governor of Washington, D.C.  


<b>Colonel 14th Indiana Infantry


Severely wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia 


Signature with rank</b>


(1822-98) Born in Fredericksburg, Indiana, he attended what is now DePauw University, and then taught school in Independence, Missouri. Shortly after, he studied medicine under his wife's brother, serving in this profession until being called into action as a captain of the 2nd Indiana Volunteers during the Mexican War. After the war he returned to Indiana where he practiced medicine at Loogootee. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Kimball was commissioned colonel of the 14th Indiana Infantry and saw action at Cheat Mountain, in western Virginia in the fall of 1861. In March 1862, Kimball was commanding one of General James Shields' division at the battle of Kernstown, Va., where he inflicted a defeat on the celebrated Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, one of the few defeats suffered by General Jackson during his military career. Kimball was promoted to brigadier general, on April 16, 1862, and led the 1st Brigade of General William H. French's division of the 2nd Corps in the bitter fighting at Antietam, where he lost 600 men killed and wounded. During the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., on December 13, 1862, he was severely wounded. By the summer of 1863, he was commanding a division of the 16th Corps during the Vicksburg campaign. In 1864, during the Atlanta campaign, he held brigade command, and then after the battle of Peach Tree Creek, he commanded a division of the 4th Corps. He was active in suppressing the activities of the disloyal Knights of the Golden Circle in southern Indiana, and then moved on to join in the fighting at the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee. After the war he became Indiana State Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic; served two terms as State Treasurer; and one term in the State Legislature. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Surveyor General of the Utah Territory in 1873, where he thereafter made his home. President Hayes later appointed him Postmaster of Ogden, Utah, an office he held until his death in 1898. Kimball was buried in Ogden, Utah. A bronze bust of General Nathan Kimball was erected in the Vicksburg National Military Park in 1915.  


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 4 1/4 x 2 5/8, in ink, Very Respectfully, Your Obt. Servt., Nathan Kimball, Brig. Genl., U.S.V. Large and bold autograph. Excellent. Very desirable.  


<b>Signature With Rank


Severely wounded at the battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee


He was the hero of the Battle of Allatoona Pass in the Atlanta campaign. Corse telegraphed General Sherman, "I am short of a cheekbone, and one ear, but am able to whip all hell yet!"</b>


(1835-93) Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he moved in 1842 with his family to Burlington in Iowa Territory. His father, John Lockwood Corse, served six terms as the mayor of Burlington, and established a prosperous book and stationery business. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy, and studied there for two years, but decided to leave West Point in 1855. Instead he decided to attended law school in Albany, New York, where he passed his bar exam. He later returned to Iowa and was nominated as the new state's lieutenant governor by the Iowa Democratic Party. In July 1861, he was appointed major of the 6th Iowa Infantry, and served on the staff of General John Pope during the Battle of Island No. 10, and in the early operations in Mississippi. Promoted to colonel, he demonstrated gallantry at Corinth, and in the Vicksburg campaign, after which he was promoted to brigadier general. Corse was badly wounded at the battle of Chattanooga, but returned in time to participate in the Atlanta campaign. He was the hero of the battle of Allatoona Pass in which General S.G. French's Confederate division attempted to dislodge Corse's men from blockhouses designed to protect the Western and Atlantic Railroad. According to many accounts, no more severe fighting was ever experienced by men in General Sherman's army; leaving 1,500 dead and wounded. Corse telegraphed Sherman, "I am short of a cheekbone, and one ear, but am able to whip all hell yet!" He went on to take part in "Sherman's March to the Sea," the capture of Savannah, and the 1865 Carolina's campaign. Following the Civil War, Corse served in a variety of posts including Collector of Internal Revenue, with his office in Chicago, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic committee, and Postmaster of Boston. Corse died on his 58th birthday, in Winchester, Massachusetts, and his body was transported to Burlington, Iowa, and interred in Aspen Grove Cemetery. The large red brick, and limestone mausoleum is plainly visible from the entrance of the cemetery, and is one of the cemetery's landmarks. 


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 4 x 2 1/4, beautifully signed in ink, Jno. M. Corse, Bvt. Maj. Genl., U.S.V. Mounted to slightly larger piece of an autograph album page. The signature is large and boldly written. Excellent. Very desirable autograph.

Autograph, General Darius N. Couch $495.00

 

Autograph, General John H. Martindale $75.00

 

Autograph, General Nathan Kimball $125.00

 

Autograph, General John M. Corse $175.00




<b>Killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri in 1861


He was the first Union general to be killed in the Civil War!</b>


(1818-61) Born in Ashford, Connecticut, he graduated in the West Point class of 1841. After graduation he was assigned as a 2nd lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Infantry with whom he fought with in the Florida Seminole War in Florida. In the Mexican War, he was promoted to first lieutenant for "conspicuous bravery in capturing enemy artillery" at the Battle for Mexico City, and received a brevet promotion to captain for the battles of Contreras and Churubusco. After the Mexican War, Lyon was posted to the western frontier, where forces under his command perpetrated the massacre of Pomo Native Americans, at Clear Lake, California, known as the 1850 "Bloody Island Massacre." Afterwards he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas, where he became a staunch antislavery man in a state where many residents were divided about slavery and their loyalty to the Union. In February 1861, Lyon was appointed commander of the Union arsenal at St. Louis, Missouri, another divided state. Suspicious of Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, who was working with Jefferson Davis on a secret plan for secession, Lyon forced the surrender of the pro-Confederate militia. Some of the Missouri civilians rioted, and Lyon's troops fired into the crowd, injuring at least 75, and killing 28. This became known as the "Camp Jackson Affair." When the Civil War broke out President Abraham Lincoln asked the state of Missouri to supply four regiments for the Union cause, and Governor Jackson refused to honor Lincoln's request, and instead ordered the Missouri State Guard to muster themselves outside of St. Louis to be in readiness to support the Confederacy. Lyon was promoted to brigadier general, on May 17, 1861, and given command of the Union troops in Missouri, and was soon afterwards named commander of the Department of the West. On June 12, 1861, General Lyon, accompanied by U.S. Congressman, Colonel Francis P. Blair, Jr., met with Governor Jackson and General Sterling Price, of the Missouri State Guard, at the Planter's House hotel in St. Louis, to discuss the implementation, and potential continuation of a truce between Federal forces and the Missouri State Guard. The discussions were conducted largely between Lyon and Jackson, who were generally intransigent in their respective positions. Lyon's view was that the U.S. forces had the right to move anywhere in the state they wanted to, while Jackson believed that Federal forces should be restricted to the St. Louis area only. After four unproductive hours, General Lyon halted the meeting, informing Governor Jackson and General Price that Jackson's demanded limitations on federal authority "means war." Lyon then allowed Jackson and Price to leave St. Louis for Jefferson City by train, in accordance with their safe conduct pass. Governor Jackson fled first to the capitol, at Jefferson City, ordering the railroad tracks destroyed behind him, and then retreated with the Missouri State Guard to Boonville, Mo. Lyon moved up the Missouri River by steamer and occupied Jefferson City without a fight on June 13th. He continued the pursuit and on June 17th he defeated a portion of the State Guard at the Battle of Boonville. The governor, his administration, and the Guard retreated to the southwest. General Lyon was subsequently supported by the reconvened Missouri State Convention which reconvened on July 22, 1861, and declared that the office of Governor and other Missouri state officials were now vacant, and appointed a Unionist provisional state government under former Missouri Chief Justice Hamilton Gamble. Lyon assumed command of the Army of the West on July 2nd, and he reinforced his army before moving southwest in pursuit of Governor Jackson, Price and the State Guard. By July 13th, Lyon was encamped at Springfield, Missouri, with about 6,000 Union soldiers. The Missouri State Guard, was situated about 75 miles southwest under the command of General Price, who linked up with troops under the command of General Benjamin McCulloch, near the end of July. The combined Confederate forces numbered about 12,000, and they formed plans to attack Springfield, and marched northeast on July 31st. The armies met at dawn a few miles southwest of Springfield on the morning of August 10th in the Battle of Wilson's Creek. General Lyon was wounded twice in the fighting; shot in the head and leg and had his horse shot out from under him. He returned to Union lines and commandeered a bay horse and although badly outnumbered by the Confederate forces, General Lyon dramatically led a counter charge with the 2nd Kansas Infantry on Bloody Hill, where he was shot in the heart and killed at about 9:30 am. Although the Union Army was defeated at Wilson's Creek, Lyon's quick action neutralized the effectiveness of pro-Southern forces in Missouri, allowing Union forces to secure the state. In the confused aftermath of the Union retreat from Wilson's Creek, General Lyon's body was mistakenly left behind on the battlefield, and discovered by Confederate forces. It was briefly buried on a Union soldier's farm outside Springfield until it could be returned to Lyon's relatives. Eventually the remains were interred at the family plot in Eastford, Connecticut, where an estimated crowd of 15,000 attended the funeral. A monument stands in memory of General Lyon in the Springfield National Cemetery, Missouri. 


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 3 x 1 1/4, in ink, Your obt. sevt., N. Lyon, Capt. 2 Inf. The top of "Your Obt. Sevt." is slightly trimmed at the very top of the paper. The signature of Lyon, and his rank are extremely bold and beautifully written. Very rare! An extremely desirable autograph of the first Union General killed in the Civil War!   


 


<b>Signature With Rank</b>


(1807-82) He was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and graduated in the West Point class of 1826. He fought in the Second Seminole Indian War under General William J. Worth from 1837-42. Casey distinguished himself during the Mexican War battles of Contreras, Churubusco, Molina del Rey, and Chapultepec, where he was severely wounded on September 13, 1847, earning the brevets of major and lieutenant colonel for gallantry. He was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers on August 31, 1861, and at the battle of Seven Pines, Va., in 1862, he was a division commander in General Erasmus B. Keyes 4th Corps, and his troops bore the brunt of the Confederate attack by General A.P. Hill. "Casey's Redoubt" was named for him. He was promoted to Major General on May 31 of 1862, and he later commanded a brigade in the Washington defenses. He also served as president of a board to examine candidates for officers of Negro Troops. He wrote the three-volume manual "System of Infantry Tactics," including "Infantry Tactics" volumes I and II, published by the army on August 11, 1862, and "Infantry Tactics for Colored Troops," that was published on March 9, 1863. The manuals were used by the armies of both sides during the Civil War. General Casey retired from the army on July 8, 1868, at the age of 61, having served over 40 years on active duty. He was a veteran member of the Aztec Club of 1847 composed of U.S. officers who had fought in the Mexican War. General Casey was also a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States as were all three of his sons. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on January 22, 1882, and is buried at Casey Farm in Saunderstown, Rhode Island.


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 5 1/4 x 1 1/2, in ink, "Silas Casey." Written below Casey's autograph in an adjutant's hand is his rank, Brevet Major Genl., U.S.A. Very fine.   

 


<b>Free frank signature with rank on Engineer Department cover


Totten had the distinction of being the longest tenured of any Chief Engineer in the U.S. Army</b>


(1788-1864) Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he was the tenth person to ever graduate from the U.S. Military Academy being one of three graduating members of the class of 1805. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers on July 1, 1805. He helped build Castle Williams, and Castle Clinton in New York harbor. During the War of 1812, he was chief engineer of the Niagara frontier and Lake Champlain armies under General Stephen Van Rensselaer. At the Battle of Queenston Heights, he fought alongside Winfield Scott, who used Totten's cravat as a white flag to signal the American surrender. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel for gallant conduct in the Battle of Plattsburgh, N.Y. From 1825 until 1838, Totten oversaw the construction of Fort Adams, in Newport, Rhode Island. Fort Adams was the second-largest construction project attempted by the army in the 19th century, after Fort Monroe, Virginia. Totten employed recent graduates of West Point as assistant engineers at Fort Adams, and taught them advanced engineering techniques. Totten's apprentices included John G. Barnard, George W. Cullum, P.G.T. Beauregard, and Alexander D. Bache, all of whom earned distinction during the Civil War. Totten was appointed Chief Engineer of the United States Army in 1838, and served in that position until his death in 1864, the longest tenure of any chief engineer. As chief engineer, he was intimately involved with every aspect of the Army Corps of Engineers activities, from fortifications to harbor improvement. During this period, Totten invented an iron-reinforced embrasure for cannon. Known as "Totten shutters," the hinged swinging doors were installed on the cannon openings of the fort between the mortar and brick facade. Balanced to swing freely, the iron shutters would be forced open by the gasses expelled from the cannon, and then rebound shut immediately afterwards, shielding the gunners from incoming fire. First installed in American forts in 1857, the design was incorporated in such locations as Fort Montgomery, Fort Delaware, Fort John C. Calhoun, Fort Wool, and Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida. Totten was greatly admired by General Winfield Scott, for whom he directed the siege of Veracruz as his chief engineer during the Mexican War. He later served as a Civil War General, being promoted to Brigadier General, U.S. Army, on March 3, 1863, and he was promoted to Brevet Major General on April 21, 1864, having served almost six decades in the army. He died suddenly of pneumonia in Washington, D.C., and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery.    


<u>Free Franked Engineer Department Envelope</u>: 5 1/2 x 3 1/8, imprinted cover, "Engineer Department, Official Business" signed in ink, J.G. Totten, Chf. Eng. Addressed to Jno. S. Putnam, Eqr., Cornish, N.H., with postmark, Washington, D.C., FREE, Mar. 14. Light age toning and wear.  


<b>Colonel of the 4th New Mexico Infantry


Severely wounded in the head and eye at the Battle of Gettysburg resulting in him becoming blind</b>  


(1813-86) Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he graduated from West Point in the class of 1834. He saw service in the Southwest, and against the Seminole Indians in Florida as a lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Infantry. While fighting in the Mexican War, he was wounded at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, but he recovered in time to serve in the campaign to capture Mexico City. He then led an assault party that captured a Mexican flag during the storming of Chapultepec earning a brevet for gallantry, and he was presented with a sword by the citizens of his hometown of St. Louis. He next served on the Indian frontier in the Department of New Mexico. In December of 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 4th New Mexico Infantry, which was later merged into the 1st New Mexico Cavalry. The following spring while in command of Fort Union, and the District of Southern New Mexico, he helped to repel the invasion of Confederate General Henry H. Sibley. Promoted to brigadier general, Paul was transferred to the eastern theater of war where he commanded a brigade in General Abner Doubleday's division, of General John F. Reynold's 1st Corps, Army of the Potomac, at the Battles of Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsvile. On July 1, 1863, during the first day of the crucial 3 day battle of Gettysburg, General Paul, who was commanding a brigade, of General John C. Robinson's division, was severely wounded by a rifle ball which entered his right temple, and passed out through his left eye leaving him totally blinded. He was later placed on the retired list with rank of Brigadier General, United States Army. General Gabriel R. Paul, died in Washington, D.C., on May 5, 1886, at the age of 73. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


<u>Signature With Sentiment</u>: 3 x 1 1/4, in ink, "Very truly yours, G.R. Paul." Very desirable Gettysburg autograph. Extremely rare signature, the first one I've owned in over 20 years, and only the 3rd one I have had in 50 years!!

Autograph, General Nathaniel Lyon

 

Autograph, General Silas Casey

 

Autograph, General Joseph G. Totten $75.00

 

Autograph, General Gabriel R. Paul $395.00




<b>Colonel 1st Florida Infantry, Confederate States of America


Wounded in action during the Atlanta campaign


United States Congressman from Washington Territory


War period autograph endorsement signed</b>


(1822-72) Born near Winchester, in Franklin County, Tennessee. He attended the medical school of Jefferson College, and practiced medicine in Hernando County, Mississippi. He also studied law at Montrose Law School in Frankfort, Kentucky, and was admitted to the bar in 1843, establishing a practice in Hernando, in DeSoto County, Mississippi. He raised and commanded the 1st Battalion "Mississippi Rifles" in the Mexican War as their lieutenant colonel. After serving a term in the Mississippi State House of Representatives, he was appointed United States marshal for Washington Territory by President Franklin Pierce. He was a United States Congressman from Washington Territory, 1855-57. He was appointed governor of the territory by President James Buchanan in 1857, but declined the office. Just prior to the start of the War Between the States, Anderson was appointed a captain of the "Jefferson Rifles," in the Florida Militia, on January 11, 1861. He served as a member of the Florida State Secession convention  and was a member of the First Confederate Provisional Congress. Commissioned colonel of the 1st Florida Infantry, his first Civil War action was with General Braxton Bragg at Pensacola, Florida. Promoted to brigadier general on February 10, 1862, he fought gallantly as a brigade and division commander of the Army of Tennessee at the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and was promoted to major general, February 17, 1864. He participated in the Atlanta campaign battles of Ezra Church and Jonesboro, being severely wounded at the latter place. He rejoined the army during the North Carolina campaign and surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina. Following the war, Anderson resided in Memphis, Tennessee, although he faced difficulty working due to his injuries sustained during the war. He sold insurance for a while and eventually became the editor of a small agricultural newspaper. Anderson died in relative poverty at his home in Memphis at the age of 50, due primarily to the lingering effects of his old war wound. He was buried there in the city's Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee.


<u>War Period Autograph Endorsement Signed</u>: 3 x 1 1/2, in ink, "respectively, Patton Anderson, Brig. Genl. Comdg. 2 Div., Hardee's Corps, A.[rmy] T.[ennessee]. Very nice war period item. Extremely desirable.  


<b>Medal of Honor Recipient for gallantry at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia


He was wounded 4 times during the Civil War


Captured the notorious Indian Chief Geronimo</b>


(1839-1925) Born in Westminster, Massachusetts, on his family's farm, he  intensely read military history, and mastered military principles and techniques, including battle drills. Working in Boston at the commencement of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army on September 9, 1861, and was commissioned 1st lieutenant, in the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry. He was discharged for promotion on May 31, 1862, and was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the 61st New York Infantry, and thereafter was inscribed on the annals of American military history creating a record seldom if ever equaled by a volunteer soldier. He was wounded 4 times during the Civil War; these coming at the battles of Seven Pines, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Petersburg. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry at Chancellorsville. He also fought in the battles of Antietam, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and in the Appomattox campaign. In 1866, he served as the Commandant at Fort Monroe, and ultimately became the jailor of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, putting him in irons. Miles played a leading role in nearly all of the U.S. Army's campaigns against the American Indian tribes of the Great Plains, and he later gained fame as the captor of the notorious chief of the Apaches, Geronimo. In 1895, Miles became General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, a post he held during the Spanish–American War. Miles commanded forces at Cuban sites such as Siboney, and after the surrender of Santiago de Cuba by the Spanish, he led the invasion of Puerto Rico. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the 77-year-old General Nelson Miles offered to serve, but President Woodrow Wilson turned him down. Miles died in 1925 at the age of 85 from a heart attack while attending the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Washington, D.C. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in the Miles Mausoleum. It is one of only two mausoleums within the confines of the cemetery.


<u>Typed Letter Signed</u>: 5 x 8, typed letter signed, on imprinted letter head.


Headquarters Of The Army

Washington, D.C.

June 27, 1901


Ralph B. Prime, Esq.,

President, American Flag Association,

Yonkers, N.Y.


Dear Sir:


I have received your favor of the 24th instant, informing me of my election as a member of the Executive Committee of the American Flag Association, and it will give me pleasure to serve as such.


I am unable to say definitely whether I can attend the meeting of the Committee, to be held at the residence of Mr. Edward Hagaman Hall, 283 Lexington Avenue, New York, on July 11th next, but I will do so if possible.


Very truly yours,

Nelson A. Miles


Beautifully tipped to an album page with black lined borders. Excellent signature and letter. Extremely desirable Medal of Honor recipient.     


 


<b>Union Army Commander


United States Congressman from California 


War period signature with rank</b>


(1819-98) Born on a farm near Little Taylor Run, in Kingston Township, Delaware County, Ohio, he graduated #5 in the West Point class of 1842, and was known as "Old Rosy." Just days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Rosecrans offered his services to Ohio Governor William Dennison, and he was given command of the 23rd Ohio Infantry, whose members included Rutherford B. Hayes, and William McKinley, both future presidents of the U.S. His plans and decisions proved extremely effective in the 1861 Western Virginia Campaign while serving under General George B. McClellan. His victories at Rich Mountain, and Corrick's Ford, in July 1861, were among the first Union victories of the war, and he was assigned to command what was to become the Department of Western Virginia. He was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army, ranking from May 16, 1861, and major general to rank from March 21, 1862. In May 1862, he directed the left wing of General John Pope's Army of the Mississippi in the advance on Corinth. When Pope was ordered east, General Rosecrans took over command of the army and fought and won the battles of Iuka and Corinth while under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant. Given command of the Army of the Cumberland, he fought against Confederate General Braxton Bragg, at the Battle of Stones River, and later outmaneuvered him in the brilliant Tullahoma Campaign, driving the Confederates from Middle Tennessee.  He later fought at the bloody Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, where he was defeated, with a third of his army being swept from the field, and his troops ended up being trapped in the besieged city of Chattanooga. Following his humiliating defeat, General Rosecrans was reassigned to command the Department of Missouri, where he opposed General Sterling Price's Missouri Raid. General Rosecrans was mustered out of the U.S. volunteer service on January 15, 1866. After the war, he became a companion of the District of Columbia Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society of officers who had served in the Union armed forces. In 1868-69, Rosecrans served as U.S. Minister to Mexico. Rosecrans was elected as a U.S. Congressman from California, serving 1881-85, including being the chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee. He spoke at a grand reunion of Union and Confederate veterans at the Chickamauga battlefield, on September 19, 1889, delivering a moving address praising national reconciliation. This gathering led to Congress establishing the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park the following year, the nation's first national battlefield park. General William S. Rosecrans died on March 11, 1898, at Redondo Beach, California, at the age of 78. His casket lay in state in the Los Angeles City Hall, covered by the headquarters flag that flew over Stones River, and Chickamauga. In 1908, his remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery.    


<u>Signature With Rank</u>: 4 1/4 x 2 1/2, in ink, W.S. Rosecrans, Bvt. Major Genl., U.S.A. Excellent and bold Civil War era autograph.


 


<b>He officially accepted the surrender of New Orleans, Louisiana in April 1862</b>


(1805-77) A native of New York, he was appointed midshipman on January 1, 1818. In 1820-21, he cruised aboard the Cyane with Captain Trenchard, capturing several slavers off the coast of Africa. On March 3, 1827, he was commissioned lieutenant. In 1833, he sailed on a round the world cruise aboard the Vincennes, and made another round the world cruise aboard the frigate Constellation. Bailey was promoted to commander on March 6, 1851, and to captain on December 15, 1855. At the start of the Civil War, he commanded the frigate Colorado, and on May 2, 1861, he participated in the blockade of Pensacola, Florida. Joining Admiral Farragut's squadron as second in command, he led the attack on New Orleans in April 1862 in the gunboat Cayuga, and it was Bailey who accepted the surrender of the city. In November 1862, he took command of the East Gulf Blockade Squadron, and during the next 18 months his force captured some 150 blockade runners. He was later promoted to Rear Admiral, and retired in 1866 because of ill health.


<u>Signature Cut From Naval Pay Document</u>: 3 x 2, partly printed form, signed by Bailey in ink at the bottom. Part of the imprint reads: Purser of the U. States Navy, [A]ccount of my Pay, &c. Nicely signed, "T. Bailey."  Very fine.

Autograph, General James Patton Anderson

 

Autograph, General Nelson A. Miles $175.00

 

Autograph, General William S. Rosecrans $125.00

 

Autograph, Admiral Theodorus Bailey, Uni




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