Superlative partially printed DS as president, boldly signed “Abraham Lincoln,” one page, 7.75 x 9.75, Executive Mansion letterhead, June 30, 1863. An executive order sending troops to Pennsylvania on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg. In part: “I ... having taken into consideration the number of volunteers and militia furnished by and from the several States, including the State of Pennsylvania, and the period of service of said volunteers and militia since the commencement of the present rebellion, in order to equalize the numbers among the Districts of the said States ... do hereby assign One Thousand Nine Hundred and Sixteen as the first proportional part of the quota of troops to be furnished by the 21st District of the State of Pennsylvania ... under the act approved March 3, 1863, entitled ‘An Act for Enrolling and Calling out the national Forces, and for other purposes,’ and, in pursuance of the act aforesaid, I order that a draft be made ... for the number of men herein assigned to said District, and fifty per cent in addition.” After his success at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was emboldened to launch a second invasion of the North, setting his sights on a prize no less than Philadelphia. As both Union and Confederate troops began to mass near Gettysburg in the final days of June and Lee himself approached the area, increasing tensions finally reached the breaking point. In the early morning hours of July 1, advancing Confederates met up with a group of Federal cavalry pickets on a road four miles outside of Gettysburg. By midmorning, troops of both armies swarmed the area, and fierce, full-fledged hostilities were soon under way. A day of heavy losses for both sides and a strategic advantage for the Confederates gave way to even fiercer battle on the following day, which devastated the ranks of both sides though the Union defenders managed hold off further advances by the Confederates. On the afternoon of the third day, some 12,500 Confederate troops made a direct attack on the Union line at cemetery ridge. The attack, immortalized as “Pickett’s Charge,” was described thus by an eyewitness: “Men fire into each other’s faces, not five feet apart. There are bayonet-thrusts, sabre-strokes, pistol shots ... men going down on their hands and knees, spinning round like tops, throwing out their arms, gulping up blood, falling; legless, armless, headless. There are ghastly heaps of dead men....” The Union’s furious barrage of rifle and artillery fire decimated the Confederates, and Lee and his troops were finally forced into retreat. Though the battle extracted a dear price in human lives—most sources estimate casualties at Gettysburg at approximately 50,000 men—the Union victory, though decidedly Pyrrhic, electrified the Northern war effort. At the same time, it proved to be a debilitating blow to the morale, personnel, and political fortunes of the South; among other consequences, the defeat at Gettysburg effectively ended the lingering possibility of European recognition of the Confederacy as a sovereign nation. In the following November, Lincoln delivered a stirring, elegiac tribute at the site of the battle, an address whose brevity scarcely hinted at its eventual stature as the most familiar, enduring, and iconic oration in American history. Light intersecting folds (one vertical fold touching first name), a touch of mild wrinkling, and a very subtle trace of soiling, otherwise fine, clean, bright condition. A rare, remarkable, and outstandingly preserved document whose superb, virtually flawless signature and historical significance grant it a status nothing short of spectacular! Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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