Civil War-dated partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 14.5 x 17.75, August 5, 1861. President Lincoln appoints Henry W. Miller as “Lieutenant in the Navy.” Boldly signed at the conclusion by President Lincoln and countersigned by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. The light green Navy Department seal remains affixed at the bottom vignette. In very good to fine condition, with creasing to the edges, and several light vertical folds.
Civil War Naval Officer Henry William ‘Harry’ Miller (1836-1904) was born and raised in historic Morristown in north-central New Jersey to Jacob Welch Miller, a U.S. Senator, and Mary Louisa Macculloch. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, as a midshipman in 1857, and sailed internationally on the new wooden steam frigate USS Minnesota from 1857 to 1859, and on the steam sloop-of-war USS Mohican in 1860 and 1861, on patrol against pirates and slave traders off East Africa.
Retroactive to April 18, 1861, only six days after the beginning of the Civil War, Miller was appointed as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant. His appointment was signed by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. In 1861 and 1862, Miller served on the Mohican gunship in a squadron under Flag Officer Samuel Francis Du Pont off the southeast coast. Miller was cited for bravery in leading a small boat crew to rescue 26 men from the Union transport Peerless sinking off the North Carolina coast during a perilous storm.
In 1864 and 1865 Miller served as one of several assistants to Lieutenant Commander Stephen B. Luce, Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. These commanders trained the midshipmen for service on the Navy’s ships, just like Miller had been trained a decade earlier. On April 10, 1866, Miller resigned as a Lieutenant Commander from the U.S. Navy after 14 years of service. A fantastic, boldly signed Lincoln appointment for a notable figure in the history of the US Navy.
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