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Lot 138
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Abraham Lincoln, important endorsement facilitating loyal Maryland General to assemble brigade
Abraham Lincoln, important endorsement facilitating loyal Maryland General to assemble brigade
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Description:

Lincoln Abraham

Autograph endorsement inscribed overall and signed by 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) as "A. Lincoln". Paper slip in floating mount is matted below a printed portrait of Lincoln, the whole framed behind glass in a mahogany finished frame with gilt filet. The actual size of the frame measures 9.625" x 14.25. Note, image, and frame in very good to near fine condition. Minor darkening to right edge of note does not affect text.

On June 10, 1861, President Lincoln wrote this note to Secretary of War Simon Cameron (1799-1889):

"Gen. Cooper is desirous of having the Regiment named within, annexed to his command. The testimonials, are very ample.  Can it not be done?

A. Lincoln

June 10, 1861."

On April 15, 1861, General James Cooper wrote to President Abraham Lincoln from Frederick, Maryland: “You may command my services to support the laws and preserve the integrity of the Union, in any capacity in which I can be useful. The Union men of the State can be relied on.” On May 3, President Lincoln called for 42,000 volunteers from the Union states to serve for three years. On May 11, Lincoln commissioned Cooper to raise and command one or more regiments in Maryland, not to exceed a brigade usually comprised of 3-5 regiments. On May 14, Maryland Governor Thomas H. Hicks issued a proclamation calling for four regiments to serve for three months’ service. Because of their short term of service, the federal government did not accept any of the three-month volunteers. Meanwhile, Cooper recruited one full regiment by May 20, and it was mustered into federal service on May 28.

Confusion abounded over whether the Governor of Maryland or the federal government would appoint officers. Egos also clashed. On May 28, 1861, Cooper wrote to War Department chief clerk John P. Sanderson, “Deputation gone to dictate appointment of officers for Regt. This is McConnell’s folly. Treat the ambassadors as they deserve  They are entitled to no respect. They are all friends to me but are tools of McConnell’s who is a fool except as far as he is a knave.” In the same letter to Sanderson, Cooper characterized McConnell as a man "who can scarcely read or write, and who is utterly ignorant not only in military matters but in all others.” Cooper also wrote to Secretary of War Simon Cameron on the same day about the “election” that had taken place through the “intrigues and scheming” of “Capt McConnell”, who was elected colonel of the regiment. (Colonel John C. McConnell of Frederick, Maryland was the commander of the 3rd Maryland Infantry until the War Department removed him as unfit in February 1862.)

After Cooper raised the first regiment, Secretary of War Cameron suspended further recruiting until the latter part of June. Because wages became more attractive at harvest-time and Congress authorized the raising of a “Home Guard” which allowed soldiers to stay at home with their families while drawing pay and rations, recruiting became much more difficult. Cooper managed to raise a second regiment by September 21, 1861, and subsequently a third. In early January 1862, he completed the organization of a cavalry regiment as well. Cooper expected the four regiments to be united into a brigade under his command, but unfortunately, the first was “cut to pieces at Front Royal”, the second was sent to General Ambrose E. Burnside, and only the third and the cavalry remained in Baltimore under Cooper’s command.In May 1862, Cooper took his command to Virginia, where the 109th and 111th Pennsylvania regiments and two batteries of artillery filled out his brigade.

In July 1862, Cooper heard a rumor that there were plans to give his command to a junior brigadier general. He wrote to President Lincoln on July 14, 1862, outlining his previous service, and observed, “Your Excellency, who has not only always been just, but likewise kind in all our intercourse, will probably recollect, even amongst the multitude of things which burden your memory, the circumstances under which my connection with the army commenced.” Cooper continued, “I did not in the first place, seek a position in the Military service. Genl Cameron invited me to Washington, and proposed to me to raise a force in Maryland. I told him my military experience was small, and that I had always been averse to undertake the performance of any thing, which I did not thoroughly comprehend. He insisted that I had a capacity to learn, and was in possession of other qualifications, that [he] thought fitted me for the position he designed I should fill.”

On July 15, the day after Cooper wrote this letter, General John Pope relieved Cooper of the command of his division and briefly replaced him with Brigadier General George S. Greene. Cooper was ordered to Frederick to await orders. When the Confederate army crossed the Potomac River, Cooper fled to Frederick to avoid capture. He telegraphed the War Department offering his services and was first ordered to Harrisburg and then to Columbus, where he was placed in command of Camp Chase. On December 4, 1862, Cooper appealed to Lincoln to “give me a command, that will relieve me of the disgrace and ignominy I have suffered.”

James Cooper (1810-1863) was born in Maryland, and graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania.He was admitted to the bar in 1834 and opened a practice in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania briefly in 1848 and represented Pennsylvania as a Whig in both the U.S. House of Representatives (1839-1843) and the U.S. Senate (1849-1855). When the Civil War began, he lived in Frederick, Maryland, and raised a brigade of volunteers in Maryland. In May 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Cooper as a brigadier general. His brigade served in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1862, but because of his poor health, Cooper was reassigned as commandant of Camp Chase near Columbus, Ohio. He died there in March 1863.

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