Auction Date:2011 Jun 15 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
War-dated ALS as president signed “A. Lincoln,” one page, 5 x 8, Executive Mansion letterhead, October 9, 1862. Letter to the Quarter-Master General, Montgomery Meigs. In full: “The bearer of this, Elbridge Meconkey, was on Gen. Mc.Call’s staff, and was wounded at Gaine’s Mill. He now wishes to be a Quarter-Master; and I would like to appoint him, if another Q.M. is now needed. Please answer.”
On the reverse of the second integral page, Meigs returns the letter to Lincoln with an endorsement reading “Respectfully returned to the President of the United States. This Department has now calls for details of Quarter-Masters of Volunteers which it cannot supply, & the Quarter Master General will gladly avail of the services of any efficient officer who may be appointed & directed to report to him for duty. M C Meigs. QMG. Q M Generals Office. Oct.10th 1862.” Under Meigs’ endorsement, Lincoln adds an endorsement reading: “Let Elbridge Meconkey be appointed at once. A. Lincoln. Oct. 10, 1862.” In very good condition, with two vertical folds (one passing through a single letter of letter’s signature), scattered toning and light staining, slight show-through from docketing on reverse, and some light brushing to Meigs’ endorsement.
Signed not once but twice by the 16th president, this document shows Lincoln’s personal involvement in military appointments during the war. The Battle of Gaines’ Mill took place on June 27, 1862 and the wounded Meconkey met with Lincoln on October 9, 1862—the date of this initial letter—to make his request before personally delivering the message to Meigs. Despite Meigs’ response to “gladly avail of the services of any efficient officer who may be appointed & directed to report to him for duty” and Lincoln’s order that “Meconkey be appointed at once,” there is no reference to the position of quartermaster in Meconkey’s lengthy obituary, published following his 1887 suicide, so he was apparently never appointed. According to volume 5 of the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, this letter was once owned by famed agricultural author Karl John Theodore Ekblaw. Lincoln presidential items—especially those dating to the Civil War—on opposite sheets are rarely encountered as they were usually separated by collectors to create two signed Lincoln documents. This example is especially attractive and notably intact.
Auction Location:
5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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