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Major General CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AUGUR ALS with ABE LINCOLN Assasination Night

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 600.00 USD
Major General CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AUGUR ALS with ABE LINCOLN Assasination Night
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Civil War Union Autographs
Civil War Union Maj. General Christopher Columbus Augur Dated just a few weeks after the Surrender at Appomatox
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AUGUR (1821-1898). Civil War Union Major General, American military officer, most noted for his role in the American Civil War, though less well known than other Union Commanders, he was nonetheless considered an able battlefield commander appointed Major General of volunteers by President Abraham Lincoln on November 14, 1862 and with Lincoln on his Assasination Night.
May 22, 1865-Dated Civil War Period Autograph Letter Signed, "C.C. Augur", 1 page, 7.5” x 9.75”, Headquarters Department of Washington, 22d Army Corps, Washington, D.C., Choice Extremely Fine. Written on 22nd Army letterhead to Mr. (Gustavus) Fox, Asst. Sec. of the Navy. Some light ink spots and typical folds, otherwise excellent condition. Dated just a few weeks after the surrender at Appomatox. This rare letter reads in full:

“Mr. Fox, - Asst. Secy of Navy, -- I enclose sixty cards for stand No. 1. for use of the Navy Dept. Should this not cover all the cases required, please inform me. I am very truly yours, - (Signed) C.C. Augur M. Genl.”

Augur was one of the Army officers who were present at the Petersen House where the mortally wounded President Abraham Lincoln was taken after he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. At Secretary of War Edwin Stanton’s request, Augur went into the street and called out for a competent photographer who knew shorthand well enough to take verbatim notes for Stanton as he interviewed witnesses to that night’s tragic event. Corporal James R. Tanner answered Augur’s call and volunteered to transcribe the witness accounts for Secretary Stanton. Augur escorted Corporal Tanner into the Petersen House where he introduced Tanner to Secretary Stanton and Chief Justice David K. Cartter, who was also present for the depositions. Augur then outlined to Tanner what his duties would be for the rest of the night.

Throughout that fateful night, and in the following days, Augur was instrumental in mobilizing troops in his command to pursue and eventually capture Booth and his co-conspirators, including detailing the detachment of the 16th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry under the command of Lt. Edward P. Doherty to follow a lead given to Stanton by a Union spy which eventually led to Lt. Doherty and his detachment tracking down and cornering President Lincoln’s assassin, Booth, and his associate, David Herold, in a tobacco barn near Port Royal, Virginia.

At about 9:30 A.M. on the morning of April 15, 1865, about ninety-minutes after Mr. Lincoln had succumbed to the assassin's bullet, Augur served as one of the officers who walked as escorts for the president's body from the Petersen House, where the president died, to the White House. On Wednesday, April 19, 1865, Augur served as the officer in charge of the military procession that escorted the president’s body from the White House to the Capitol where it would lie in state
Following the Civil War, Christopher Colombus Augur went on to command several military departments: the Department of the Platte from January 15, 1867, to November 13, 1871; the Department of Texas from November, 1871, to March, 1875; the Department of the Gulf from 1875 to July 1, 1878; the Department of the South from July 1, 1878, to December 26, 1880; and then he returned to the Department of Texas where he commanded for approximately another three years between January 2, 1881, and October 31, 1883. He headed up the Military Division of the Missouri from 1883-85.

He also played a major role in negotiating the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 and the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. A fort in the Wyoming Territory was briefly named Fort Augur in his honor. In 1885, he retired from the Army with the rank of Brigadier General.

He was a member of the Aztec Club of 1847, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and the Military Order of Foreign Wars.

Augur died in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. on January 16, 1898, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.