Civil War-dated partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 15.75 x 19.5, March 20, 1863. President Lincoln appoints James Tuttle Smith as "Hospital Chaplain in the service of the United States." Signed at the conclusion by President Abraham Lincoln and countersigned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The blue War Department seal affixed to the upper left remains intact. In very good to fine condition, with fading to all of the handwriting, including Lincoln's signature (which remains fully legible), and show-through from mounting remnants to reverse.
James Tuttle Smith (1831-1910) served as a military chaplain from 1862 to 1865 during the Civil War, and went on to become rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Manhattan from 1866 to 1888. A military appointment for an important position—one that brought comfort to the Union Army's wounded and dying soldiers—this is just the second Lincoln commission for a hospital chaplain that we have offered.
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