War Date Document Signed issuing orders to General Alfred Duffie
(1892-1901) Born at Culpeper, Va., he graduated in the West Point class of 1851, and was commissioned brevet 2nd lieutenant, 1st U.S. Dragoons, July 1, 1851. Promoted to 2nd lieutenant, July 15, 1853; 1st lieutenant, June 7, 1855; captain, A.A.G., August 3, 1861; staff of General Nathaniel P. Banks; colonel, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, October 7, 1861; commanded his regiment at Secessionville, James Island and Hilton Head; A.A.G., and Assistant in the Adjutant General's Office; brevet brigadier general, March 13, 1865, for dilligent, faithful and meritorious Civil War service. He remained in the Regular U.S. Army after the war, attaining rank of brigadier general and adjutant general; retired in 1893. He married the widow of U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
War Date Document Signed: 8 x 10, in ink, on imprinted letter sheet.
War Department, Adjutant General's Office Washington, July 1st, 1863
Special Orders, No. 290
4. Brigadier General A.N. Duffie, U.S. Volunteers having responded at the Adjutant General's Office in accordance with a telegraphic order from Head Quarters, Army of the Potomac, will await further orders in this city.
By order of the Secretary of War
Official Robt. Williams Assistant Adjt. General
(Sd) E.D. Townsend Assistant Adjutant General
[to] Genl. Duffie, National Hotel
Light age toning and wear. Very fine.
This document came out of the personal papers of General Alfred N. Duffie, and this was his personal copy of this order. Rare.
General Alfred N. Duffie: (1835-80) Born in Paris, he was the son of a French count. He graduated from the military college of St. Cyr in 1854 and won four decorations in the Crimea. Wounded in the battle of Solferino against the Austrians, he took leave of absence to come to the U.S. in 1859, where he met and married the daughter of a prominent Staten Island family. When the Civil War broke out he resigned his commission in the French army and offered his services to the U.S. On Aug. 2, 1861, he was commissioned captain of the 2nd N.Y. Cavalry and was promoted to major in October. In July 1862, he was appointed colonel of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry which he led in the 2nd Bull Run campaign. In March 1863 his distinguished services at the battle of Kelly's Ford got the attention of General Joe Hooker who requested his promotion to brigadier general which was granted. He commanded a division of the Cavalry Corps under General Alfred Pleasanton during the Chancellorsville campaign and the early phases of the Gettysburg campaign. After this he was ordered to the Department of West Virginia and his subsequent service was in that department under Generals' Benjamin F. Kelley, Franz Sigel, David Hunter and George Crook. In October 1864, he was captured by Confederate partisans near Bunker Hill, Va., and was not paroled until the end of February 1865.
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