ALS signed “U. S. Grant, General,” two pages, 7.75 x 9.75, Head Quarters Armies of the United States letterhead, August 2, 1866. Handwritten letter to "His Excellency A. Johnson, President of the U. States," in full: "It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the services of Col. A. H. Markland, as special Agt. of the P. O. Dept. throughout the war, for furnishing mails to the Armies in the field with promptness. He was ever vigilant and efficient in the line of duties he was required by his office to perform. These duties, I should think, formed a good lesson preparatory to the performance of higher duties in the P. O. Dept. and I take pleasure in expressing my conviction of the Colonel's fitness for any position in that department he may seek." Handsomely mounted, double-matted, and framed with portraits and engraved plaques to an overall size of 41 x 20.5. In fine condition.
From the Ulysses S. Grant Association's 'Dispatches from Grant' newsletter (April 1973): 'Fourteen-year-old Ulysses S. Grant first met Absalom H. Markland, three years younger, when both were attending Maysville Seminary in Maysville, Kentucky. Grant was in Maysville for less than a year, and they did not meet again until fall, 1861, when Markland, recently an attorney in Washington, D. C., arrived in Cairo as special agent of the Post Office Department to weed out disloyal employees. As he left for the Tennessee River expedition in February, 1862, Grant placed Markland in charge of delivering mail to his army. Through the remainder of the Civil War Markland continued as special agent of the Post Office, forwarding mail to armies in the field, earning the honorary title of colonel and the gratitude of many officers, especially Grant and William T. Sherman, who appreciated the effect on soldier morale of prompt mail delivery.'
Thanks to his successes, Markland was commissioned a colonel on the staff of General Grant in November 1863. He resigned from the public service in 1866 and became connected with railroad interests of the South, but before long was called back into duty by his old friend and comrade: on taking office in 1869, President U. S. Grant appointed Markland as Third Assistant Postmaster General. He entered upon the duties of Assistant Superintendent of Railway Mail Service in July 1869 and remained on that duty until his retirement in October 1874.
Markland's heroic service to the war-torn nation was recently chronicled in a biography by Candice Shy Hooper, entitled Delivered Under Fire: Absalom Markland and Freedom's Mail.
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