General Orders by Townsend, Signed (3 results)

16mo. Self-cover. 8pp. Near fine. Binding traces at gutter (not affecting text). This lengthy and fascinating General Order chronicles the Fort Snelling court martial trial of Captain James Starkey of the 1st Minnesota Mounted Rangers, charged with "Making false muster," "Willingly signing muster rolls containing false musters," "Making false return to his superior officer of the state of his Company" and "Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." Each charge is elaborated in great detail. Starkey was found guilty of most of the charges and sentenced "To be cashiered, and to be forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the United States" -- this latter sentence commuted by President Lincoln, who always believed in giving someone a second chance. Signed in type at the conclusion by Townsend as Assistant Adjutant General. General Orders were usually made in modest quantities for distribution to the various army commands, where the company clerks would collect them (hence the occasional file holes). A great many were destroyed during the course of the war, and original examples of most survive in surprisingly few copies.

Condition: Very good. - A 7-1/4 inches high by 4-5/8 inches wide broadsheet General Order issued as a "resolution of Congress" authorizing Lieutenant General W.T. Sherman "to use the most efficient means his judgment will approve, to reclaim from peonage the women and children of the Navajo Indians, now held in slavery in the territory adjacent to their homes, and the reservation on which the Navajo Indians have been confined." The resolution adapted by Congress on July 27, 1868 was distributed as a general order by "Command of General Grant" and signed in print by E.D. Townsend, as Assistant Adjutant General. Removed from a bound collection in the distant past, the broadsheet is lightly chipped with stab marks along the left edge. Very good. Throughout the American Southwest and, in this case New Mexico, Spanish settlers and their ancestors pursued a flourishing slave trade from the 16th though the 19th centuries. Captive Native Americans, who became known as "Genizaros" were sold as slaves to Hispanic families. This practice went on even after the United States came to govern New Mexico. Having abolished slavery through the 13th Amendment in 1865, Congress then passed the "Peonage Act" in 1867 when it became known that New Mexicans still owned hundreds, maybe thousands, of these "Genizaros", consisting mostly of Navajo women and children.RARE.

Washington: War Department, 1864 October 1. Handbill. 12mo. Very good. File holes at left edge, not affecting text. "Regulations in respect to the distribution of election tickets and proxies in the Army," which spells out the rules and regulations for soldiers to vote in absentia -- including the warning: "Any officer or private who may wantonly destroy tickets, or prevent their proper distribution among legal voters, interfere with the freedom of election, or make any false or fraudulent return, will be deemed guilty of an offense against good order and military discipline." Obviously issued on the eve of the presidential election. Signed in type by E.D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General.