Lincoln, Abraham. A document signed as 16th President, being a military commission for Albert Hartsuff

Property from Joseph Rubinfine, American Historical Autographs

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM

DOCUMENT SIGNED ("ABRAHAM LINCOLN") AS 16TH PRESIDENT, BEING A MILITARY COMMISSION FOR ALBERT HARTSUFF

Engraved broadside on vellum (17 1/2 x 13 3/4 in.; 445 x 350 mm), accomplished in a clerical hand, Washington, 10 August 1861, appointing Albert Hartsuff an Assistant Surgeon, countersigned by the Secretary of War Simon Cameron ("Simon Cameron"), embossed blue paper seal, martial vignettes by J. V. N. and C. H. Throop at head and foot, recording docket; minor fading, including to Cameron's signature. With etched portrait of Lincoln. Matted, framed, and glazed together; not examined out of frame.

Albert Hartstuff was born in Seneca Falls, New York, on 4 February 1837. He studied medicine at the State University at Castelton, Vermont. He became a hospital surgeon, and pursued his postgraduate work in New York, at the Marine Hospital.

As the present document shows, he entered military service an Assistant Surgeon in 1861. Hartstuff was brevetted Captain and Major for meritorious service during the Civil Was, and continued to rise steadily through the ranks over the course of his military career. In 1900 he was made Colonel and Assistant Surgeon General, and in 1901 he retired as Brigadier General. During his years of service, he was stationed at West Point, New Orleans and on the Pacific Coast as well as Fort Wayne, and was attached to the Department of the East and to the Military Department of Missouri.