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Civil War–dated ALS as president, signed “A. Lincoln,” one page, 4.75 x 7.5, Executive Mansion letterhead, October 13, 1862. Handwritten letter to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, in full: "I have ample evidence that the bearer of this, Mr. Benjamin F. Winchester, is a most worthy gentleman, and devoted Union man. His means of subsistence is totally broken up by the taking of the Female Seminary at Frederick, Md., for a government hospital. I shall be really obliged if you can find a place of Additional Pay-Master, Quarter-Master, or Commissary for him." Handsomely double-matted and framed with a photo of Lincoln visiting Union troops after Antietam to an overall size of 15 x 12.75. In fine condition, with very faint toning along one of the vertical folds.
The Frederick Female Seminary, a preparatory school for girls chartered in 1840, became one of nineteen private buildings converted to hospitals to house the massive number of Union and Confederate soldiers wounded in nearby battles. This was necessitated especially by the Battle of Antietam, fought three weeks earlier on September 17, 1862—a day that remains the bloodiest in American history, with a tally of 22,727 dead, wounded, or missing on both sides.
President Abraham Lincoln visited the wounded in Frederick on October 4th, after his conferences with McClellan. Met by an enthusiastic crowd outside, Lincoln declined, as usual, to speak at length but offered a few words: 'I might perhaps talk nonsense to you for half an hour and it wouldn't hurt anybody,' he joked. He proceeded to give 'thanks to our good soldiers for the services they have rendered, the energy they have shown, the hardships they have endured, and the blood they have shed for this Union of ours' (see: History of Frederick County, Maryland, by Williams and McKinsey, p. 381).
Published in The Collected Words of Abraham Lincoln (Supplement, 1832–1865), edited by Roy P. Basler (p. 157), which notes that Lincoln's request was granted; Winchester was appointed commissary of subsistence on November 26, 1862.
Provenance: Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Christie's, October 16, 2020.
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