Abraham LINCOLN (1809 – 65) Fine content Autograph Letter Signed “A. Lincoln” as President, 1p., 8 x 5 in., “Executive Mansion”, Washington, 27 May 1861 to Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas advising him to allow three members of a Baltimore artillery company to join Union forces.
Written only two days following the death of his beloved friend Colonel Ellsworth, and only a month after he suspends habeas corpus along Union supply lines, Lincoln seeks to advance cause of Unionism in Maryland urging enlistment of troops from this crucial border state. Lincoln introduces Thomas to three Baltimore artillerymen eager to further the Union cause:
“The three gentlemen who will hand you this note, belong to an Artillery Company at Baltimore, who wish to get into the United States Service — Please give them an interview; and after they explain their case, if you advise it, I will receive them — I hate to reject any offer from what is called a Southern State.”
Lincoln’s three visitors, according to a published notice in a Baltimore paper on 25 May under the heading “TENDER OF THE EAGLE ARTILLERY”, were “Sergeants Rigby and Binyon, and Private Taylor, [who had been] appointed to proceed to Washington and wait on the President.”1 The Baltimore Sun reported the following day that “A delegation from the Eagle Artillery, of Baltimore, came from Baltimore to-day, and offered the services of the corps to the government. President Lincoln cordially received them, and gave them a letter to Adjutant General Thomas, who will write them on the subject. They will number 60 men, if accepted. They return this afternoon.”2
The official record is silent on whether General Thomas took Lincoln’s advice. The Eagle Artillery had been active in suppressing disturbances in Baltimore the previous month and would have been considered a loyal unit.3 However, it appears that Thomas did nothing immediately to press them into service. Oddly enough, on 6 June 1861 the U.S. Marshal in Baltimore demanded that the company surrender its guns and ammunition belonging to the State of Maryland: “…a demand was made by Washington Bonifant, Esq. United States Marshal on Lieut. Jacob Brown, commanding the Eagle Artillery Company, for the cannon and arms in possession of that company, belonging to the state. Four brass six pounders with caissons, forty muskets and sixteen sets of harness were delivered up and removed from their armory to Fort McHenry.” The paper remarked that the demand “for the arms was only a matter of form” as the company had “made a tender of their services, with their batteries, to the government.”4 It would appear that the federal government was more interested in obtaining Eagle’s equipment than its men!
According to official records, the Eagle Artillery was not called up as a body for federal service until July 1863 when it mobilized to man defenses of Baltimore during the Gettysburg Campaign. It appears members of the Eagle Artillery did serve with the First Maryland Light Artillery that was organized in August 1861. Of the three men who visited Lincoln on 27 May, we have identified two as members of the 1st Maryland. Sergeant Rigby was one James H. Rigby, who was commissioned a lieutenant and served with Battery A in August 1861. Rigby was promoted to captain in 1863 and served until March 1865 serving in the Peninsular Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Sergeant Binyon was one Thomas W. Binyon, who received a commission as a lieutenant in Battery B from 1861 to 1863. Binyon rejoined the Eagle Artillery as a lieutenant when it was pressed into service for six months to protect Baltimore in July 1863.5
Listed in Basler with only abbreviated text.
Extremely light toning, expected folds, discreet mounting remnants on verso, else near fine condition.
(EXA 4300) SOLD.
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1 Baltimore American, 25 May 1861, 3.
2 Baltimore Sun, 28 May 1861, 4.
3 Baltimore Sun, 20 Apr. 1861, 1.
4 Baltimore Commercial Advertiser, 8 June 1861, 1.
5 Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-65 via civilwardata.com.
