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![5 x 8, imprint.
Headquarters Department of the Gulf
Ship Island, [Mississippi], March 24, 1862
General Orders No. 4
A Board of Officers, consisting of
1. Col. O.P. Gooding, 31st Mass. Volunteers
2. Lieut. Col. A.B. Farr, 26th Mass. Volunteers
3. Major David R. Hastings, 12th Maine Volunteers
4. Capt. William Roy, 21st Indiana Volunteers
5. First Lieut. John Brennan, 12th Conn. Volunteers
Will assemble at the Headquarters of the 31st Mass. Volunteers, on the 25th inst., or as soon thereafter as practicable, for the examination of such officers as may be brought before it.
The Board will report upon the capacity, qualifications, property of conduct and efficiency of the officers examined.
By command of MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER
GEO. C. STRONG, A.A.G.
Excellent. Scarce Ship Island, Mississippi imprint from the Department of the Gulf just prior to the capture of New Orleans.
<u>WBTS Trivia</u>: Ship Island is located about 67 miles south of New Orleans near the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was the only deep-water harbor between Mobile Bay and the mighty Mississippi, and the island served as a vital anchorage for ships.
Construction of the fort began in 1859, and continued up to the Civil War which the Confederates named Fort Twiggs in honor of Confederate General David E. Twiggs. After Union occupation, the island became a prison camp for Confederate p.o.w.'s, and a base for the U.S. Second Regiment, Louisiana Native Guards, a unit composed of African-American soldiers. On July 9, 1861, a cannon exchange between Confederates in Fort Twiggs, and the Federal steamer USS Massachusetts took place. Ship Island was ultimately forced to be abandoned by the Confederates because it could not be adequately garrisoned. The USS Massachusetts took possession of the island, and it later became a valuable Federal base from which to stop the traffic of Confederate vessels traveling between Mobile and New Orleans through the Mississippi Sound.
In 1862, the fort was re-renamed Fort Massachusetts in honor of the Union warship which had seized the Confederate outpost.](https://www.tias.com/stores/war/thumbs/ud2650a.jpg)
![A rarely surviving example of the period common practice of wearing a single epaulette as insignia of rank by military officers both militia and Regulars<B>*</B>, this silver Captain of Infantry epaulette is accompanied by a Sergeant’s epaulette, both offered here as set aside decades ago with the notation <I> from Father’s uniform 1839 Aroostook War Lizzie J Longley Rines</I>. Our research finds <I>Lizzie J Longley Rines</I> as the 1843 Bangor, Maine daughter of Aroostook War<B>**</B> participant then Captain of the Old Town, Maine Militia <B>Capt. Stover Rines</B>. [As an aside Lizzie Rines died in 1849 at her home in Boston.]
<B>*</B> After the Revolution the American system was that General to Major wore two epaulets while others wore one. Captain on the right, Lieutenant on left with silver designating infantry and dragoons with gold for artillery. Sergeants frequently wore an abbreviated epaulette held by a button on the right shoulder .
The <I>Aroostook War</I> occurred in 1838 and 1839 and was centered around a dispute between the U. S. and English over the international boundary between the British colony New Brunswick and the state of Maine. Simmering over a number of years a second and in the time equally paramount was the issue of navigation rights on the St. John River. Largely lost in time is the fact that earlier on these issues were responsible for the establishment of a US Army barracks in Hancock, Maine and the service of <B>Robert E. Lee</B> there as an Army surveyor. In 1839 <B>Capt. Stover Rines</B> and his company of militia was part force of some two hundred men who marched to Aroostook to arrest and imprison <I>trespassers</I> on state land. Capt. Rines and two other key figures leading the Maine force were ultimately taken captive and jailed in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The action inflamed both sides. Additional State troops were authorized and the US Congress raised 50,000 men to repel any actual invasion of American soil. The Aroostook War ultimately came to a bloodless end when <B>General Winfield Scott</B> was successful in negotiating a settlement between the parties. One of the officers serving under Gen. Scott at <I> Headquarters, Eastern Division, United States Army, Augusta Maine</I> was <B>Robert Anderson</B> later <I>Major Robert Anderson</I> of Fort Sumter fame.
While a Google search of <I>Capt. Stover Rines Maine</I> will offer considerably more detail on Capt. Rines and his service on the Maine frontier, we did not find an account of his earlier militia service thus can only assume that the included sergeants epaulette is a remnant progression through the ranks.
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