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Sale 73
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Lot 26
Lincoln, Abraham (1809-65) 16th President of the United States (1861-65). Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln" as President, 1 page, 5 x 8 in., Executive Mansion, 4 Jan. 1862. To Brigadier General and Quartermaster of the U.S. Army Montgomery C. Meigs: "Gen. Meigs / My dear Sir / Gen. Cooper, who will present this, is anxious to have Alfred A. McGaffey appointed Q.M. for his Brigade; & I am willing to oblige him, only that I have an impression that ["that" is crossed out] you have some objection. If you have not, so write below this, and he may be appointed."
Meigs writes below: "The Q M Genl cannot recommend this appointment. MC Meigs / QMG." On 6 January, Gen. Cooper wrote Lincoln that Meigs' objection stemmed from "the belief that McGaffey is a gambler…." There is no record of McGaffey's appointment and he has not been otherwise identified. Gen. Meigs served as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War, establishing a reputation for being efficient, hard-working, and scrupulously honest. He was responsible for the largest amount of money ever disbursed by a single individual in military history up to that point: some fifteen hundred million dollars. The General Orders (January 4, 1892) issued at the time of his death declared that "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."
Gen. James Cooper, once a student in the Gettysburg law office of Thaddeus Stevens and a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, had been a member of the committee which drafted the Compromise of 1850. Because of his Whig antecedents and Maryland birth, Lincoln appointed him a brigadier in May 1861 to recruit "loyal Marylanders." He briefly served under Franz Sigel in the Army of the Shenandoah during Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, then commanded parole and prison camps in Ohio before his death in March 1863.
Dark bold writing by both Lincoln and Meigs; a few light vertical folds; some mounting traces on blank verso; two miniscule tears and a thread-thin line of toning along the left margin, otherwise fine. Published in CWAL, Vol. V, pp 90-91.
Estimated Value $20,000 - 25,000
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