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CDV General Winfield Scott

(1786-1866) A year older than the Constitution, the venerable Scott, hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, became General in chief of the U. S. Army in 1841, a position he still held at the start of the Civil War. A true professional soldier, he was one of the very few men in the country who saw the need to prepare for a major military effort. His Anacondona Plan proved to be very sound. Succeeded by General George B. McClellan in Nov. 1861, he retired to write his memoirs, and died at West Point in 1866 where he is buried. A Virginian, he was the...  

CDV General George B. McClellan

(1826-85) Graduated in the West Point class of 1846 and fought in the Mexican War. Hailed at the beginning of the Civil War as the "Young Napoleon," he proved to be a brilliant military organizer, administrator, and trainer of men, but an officer totally lacking in the essential qualities of successful command of large forces in battle. He saw action at Rich Mountain, W.V., in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign and at the battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history. He was defeated for the presidency in 1864 by Abraham...  

CDV General Ambrose E. Burnside

(1824-1881) Graduated in the West Point class of 1847. Mexican War veteran. Serving on the western frontier, he was wounded in a skirmish with Apaches in 1849. He resigned his commission in 1853, invented a breech loading rifle, was appointed a Major General of the Rhode Island State Militia and was elected to Congress as a Democrat. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he organized the 1st Rhode Island Infantry, becoming their Colonel. He was in command of a brigade at 1st Bull Run. Having become a Lincoln favorite, he was given command of the expedition...  

CDV General John E. Smith

(1816-97) Born in Berne, Switzerland, his father was a Napoleonic officer who fought at Waterloo. His family moved to America when he was a young boy settling in Philadelphia where he learned the trade of jeweler and goldsmith. He later moved to Galena, Illinois and in 1860 was elected county treasurer. He may have rescued a struggling U.S. Grant from obscurity when he recommended him to Governor Yates in 1861, stating that Grant would be very helpful in raising and organizing a regiment for the field. He served on the governor's staff for a time, then...  

CDV General Franz Sigel

(1824-1902) Was born in Baden, Germany. He graduated from a military academy at Karlsruhe in 1843, and became a subaltern in the service of Grand Duke Leopold. During the 1848 insurrections he acted as minister of war for the revolutionary forces which were overthrown by the Prussians. He fled to New York in 1852. During the years before the war he taught school and held a major's commission in the 5th New York Militia. Sigel became a brigadier general on August 7, 1861, and a major general on March 22, 1862. Despite his military shortcomings, he did much...  

Special Orders, 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry

8 x 10, manuscript in ink.

Head Quarters, Army of the Potomac
Camp near [?], Md., Nov. 5th/62

Special Orders
No. 311

1st Lieut. Jno. S. Schultz, 93d Pa. Vols. having been appointed second aide de camp in the staff of Major Genl. Couch will in the event of his accepting that appointment report without delay for duty to Maj. Genl. Couch.

By Command Major Genl. McClellan
(sd) S. Williams
Asst. Adjt. Genl.

Hd. Qrs. 6th Army Corps
April 6th, 1862
Official (sd) O.D. Greene
A.A.G. & chf. of staff

Hd....  

CDV General Ulysses S. Grant

(1822-1885) Graduated in the West Point class of 1843. Fought in the Mexican War. Commander-in-Chief of all Union armies 1863-65. He fought at Shiloh, Vicksburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and in the Appomattox campaign. Served as 18th President of the United States 1869-77.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 3 7/8 card. Beautiful portrait of General Grant seated in front of a tent. Imprint on the front mount: Lieut. Gen. U.S. Grant. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865, by Anthony...  

CDV General Godfrey Weitzel

(1835-84) Graduated #2 in the West Point class of 1855. In the spring of 1862, he was appointed as the chief engineer of Gen. Butler's expedition against New Orleans. After the occupation, Weitzel became 2nd in command and acting mayor, and was promoted to brigadier general. He commanded a division under Gen. Banks at Port Hudson and then returned east to become chief engineer of Butler's Army of the James operating against Petersburg. In 1864, now promoted to major general, he successively commanded the 18th and 25th Corps, the latter composed entirely...  

Orders, None But The President Can Discharge Officers Appointed By Himself

5 x 7 1/2, imprint.

War Department
Adjutant General's Office
Washington, April 15, 1862

General Orders,
No. 40

The Secretary of War has observed, with some surprise, that the commanders of one or two military departments, conceiving themselves empowered to do so, have undertaken to accept the resignations of, and otherwise discharge from the service of the United States, officers commissioned or appointed by the President, in the volunteer staff of the Army.

All such discharges are...  

1862 Order Respecting Trade Regulations

5 x 7 1/2, imprint.

War Department,
Adjutant General's Office,
Washington, August 29, 1862

General Orders,
No. 119

The following orders are published for the information and government of all concerned:

ORDER RESPECTING TRADE REGULATIONS

War Department,
Washington City, D.C., August 28, 1862

Please click on "Click to zoom" if you want to read the details of this order in the enlarged format.

By Order Of The Secretary Of War:

Signed in print by E.D. Townsend
Assistant...  

CDV Edwin Booth

(1833-93) The son of Junius Brutus Booth and brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. He established himself as the foremost American actor of his day. After 1863 he co-managed the Winter Garden Theatre in NYC where he staged Shakespearian tragedies including Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello. The production of Julius Caesar starring him and his two brothers, Junius Booth and John Wilkes Booth, as well as his 100 night appearance as Hamlet, were milestones in American theatre history. After the assassination of President Lincoln by his brother...  

CDV General Francis P. Blair, Jr.

(1821-75) The son of an advisor to presidents and the brother of Montgomery Blair, Abraham Lincoln's first postmaster general. From secession to reconstruction, Francis P. Blair, Jr. made a series of major contributions to the Union cause. No man did more to block Missouri's joining the Confederacy in 1861; as a U.S. Congressman he battled for Lincoln's early war programs; he was a distinguished divisional and corps commander in the Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns; and as a post war senator battled the Radical Republicans in an attempt to bring...