Lot 103
LINCOLN APPOINTS A NEW BRIGADE. Below, Cameron has written "Let this appointment be made at once. Simon Cameron. Sep. 18 1861." Written vertically on the left half of this same page, Lincoln's Secretary of War has written: "These appointments are respectfully recommended to the immediate attention of the President. Simon Cameron 17 Sept. 1861." This earlier note, written a day before Lincoln signed his endorsement to the appointments, is a continuation of the document that begins on the recto, apparently written in a staff officer's hand, which reads as follows:
"The following appointments are recommended:
W.L. Ward of Ky. Brigadier General
= Regiment No 1.
John. H. Ward of Bowlingreen Ky -- Lt. Colonel
James. B. Carlisle - - - Major
Regiment 2
Edward. H. Hobson - Lt. Colonel
John Carlisle - - Lt. Colonel
William Hobson -------- Major
Regiment 3
Wade Velagat ----------- Colonel
over, "
Lincoln's signature is bold and clear. The document is lightly age-toned, with a slight ink smudge over Cameron's signature and autograph date, this page being signed twice by the Secretary of War. Framed with a number of incidental biographical items, including matted photographs, postcards, and an autobiography, to an overall size of 31½ x 35." 16th President of the United States, 1861-1865.
Autograph Endorsement Signed as President. One folded leaf, two-sided, Octavo, n.p., September 18, 1861. Being a memorandum from Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Secretary of War, to President Abraham Lincoln, recommending a number of urgent military appointments. This document, written in September of 1861, finds President Lincoln already in the throes of the Civil War. The War had begun only six months earlier, in April, but President Lincoln was being kept urgently busy. On the 18th of September, the day our document reached the president, Lincoln's Cabinet met to ready the Union Army and listen to reports from its Generals; Lincoln alerted both his Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy that a joint expedition to the Southern Coastline, which they were contemplating, must be ready to move by the following month, in October. Lincoln needed to appoint officers for a new Kentucky Brigade. Our exceptional document, endorsed by the Presidenr, is the list of those appointments. The document dramatically illustrates the kind of frenzied activity the war produced in the White House, and Lincoln's cenral role in the movements that launched the Civil War.
Lincoln's four-line endorsement, signed and dated, appears on the verso of same page that Cameron has used to enumerate his appointment recommendations. Lincoln writes:
"If Mr. [?] requests it, let these appointments be made, as within indicated. A. Lincoln.".
Estimated Value $4,000-UP.
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| Realized $4,485 |
