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Lincoln, Abraham, as Sixteenth President
Description
Condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Lincoln orders "free transportation to ... the Regular Embalmers for the U.S. Armies."
Although the science of embalming flourished in ancient Egypt, the practice largely fell into abeyance until the American Civil War. Dr. Thomas Holmes, a New York surgeon commissioned in the Union Medical Corps, developed a non-poisonous embalming fluid (arsenic had been a mainstay of earlier formulations), which he demonstrated when he prepared for burial the body of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth. Ellsworth, a member of the New York Zouaves and a former clerk in Lincoln's Springfield law office, was part of the Union force that occupied Alexandria, Virginia. On 24 May 1861 he was shot dead while removing a Confederate flag flying above the Marshall House hotel. At Lincoln's order, Ellsworth's body lay in state at the White House and then was carried by train to New York City and Albany, before reaching his hometown of Mechanicsville, New York, for interment. Because Ellsworth was one of the first Union casualties of the war, his death received wide newspaper coverage—as did the success of Holmes's embalming procedure.
Embalmers and morticians soon began following the Northern Armies, some ghoulishly selling what amounted to embalming insurance prior to engagements; prices for embalming services generally ranged between $30 and $80. While most of the more than 600,000 soldiers killed in the Civil War were buried near the battlefields where they died, some 40,000 (mostly from the Union) were embalmed so that their bodies could be returned to their family homes for burial.
As the practice became more common, the War Department became increasingly involved in regulating field embalming. Inevitably, some charlatans were defrauding the troops and providing bogus services. In response to complaints about these renegade embalmers, General Ulysses S. Grant issued a general order, 9 January 1865, cancelling the permits of all embalmers and ordering them behind military lines. The present order signed by Lincoln contravenes Grant's comprehensive ban and illustrates the support the Union was prepared to provide to bona fide embalming surgeons.
"The Quartermasters and Provost Marshals will give free transportation to Dr. C. B. Chamberlin, J. G. Huntington, A. S. Saul, J. C. Mott, and Assistants, to and from the Armies operating in Virginia, and those of the South and South-West, by regular Government Boats or Rail Roads, or any other Transportation that may be necessary for themselves, to, from, and in the Armies, and everything relating to their business as Embalmers for the United States Armies; that all Provost Marshals and Quartermasters will respect and not take up this or the regular Passes given them by the Secretary of War or the Surgeon General. The said Dr. C. B. Chamberlin, J. G. Huntington, A. S. Saul, and J. C. Mott to be considered and respected as the Regular Embalmers for the U.S. Armies, during their good behaviour." A rare document.