Career officer in the United States Army (1816-1886) who resigned from the U.S. Army to join the Confederate States Army after the outbreak of the American Civil War; his conical ‘Sibley tent,’ which could comfortably house about a dozen men, was used extensively by the Union Army. ADS signed “H. H. Sibley, Capn & Br. Maj.,” one page, 5 x 8, March 16, 1857. Handwritten document from Henry Hopkins Sibley designating fellow lifelong Army officer and future Confederate Brigadier General William E. ‘Grumble’ Jones to oversee the manufacture and sale of his recently patented tent: “I hereby authorize and empower W. E. Jones, Esqr. to act and to do all things needful in the manufacture and sale of my 'improved conical tent,' patented in 1856.” Marked “Duplicates” to the bottom. In fine condition.
Copied from the basic design of the Indian wigwams Sibley had observed on the frontier, the Sibley tent saw widespread use by the U.S. Army during the early Civil War years. Despite having contracted for the tent's use, the U.S. Army declined to pay the royalty when Sibley sided with the Confederacy — the U.S. Congress refused to hear the claim brought by Sibley's family after his death.
