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62

U. S. Grant

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
U. S. Grant

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Auction Date:2011 Jul 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : 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
Unusual DS, signed “U. S. Grant,” one page, 3.25 x 6.5, September 14, 1864. Grant recommends New York Governor Horatio Seymour approve a general’s request. In full: “Respectfully forwarded to his Exc’y Horatio Seymour Governor of the State of New York, with the recommendation that for the good of the service, and to promote the efficiency of the Engineer Brigade, the requests of Gen. Benham be granted.” In very good condition, with scattered creases and wrinkling, tiny chip at right edge just touches the end of the final stroke of Grant’s crossing of the “t,” scattered stains, and mounting remnants on the reverse with slight show-through.

The requesting officer, Henry Washington Benham, was an 1837 West Point graduate who was commissioned a Brigadier General of Volunteers in 1861. After disobeying orders and launching an unsuccessful assault on Confederate forces in 1862, he was demoted and assigned to engineering duty in Massachusetts, only to be reinstated by President Abraham Lincoln as commander of the engineering brigade of the Army of the Potomac. General Grant was apparently satisfied with the actions of his subordinate officer, here giving his blessing to Benham’s request “for the good of the service, and to promote the efficiency of the Engineer Brigade,” and requesting that Governor Seymour do the same. The day after forwarding Benham’s letter, Grant traveled to West Virginia to meet with General Philip H. Sheridan and discuss combat strategy in the Shenandoah Valley—battles that would mark the decline of Confederate power. Four years after this correspondence, Grant defeated Governor Seymour in the 1868 presidential election!
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