LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Partly printed document signed (“Abraham Lincoln”) as President, Washington, March 22, 1862.

One page, 490 x 372mm., countersigned by Edwin M. STANTON (1814-1869) as Secretary of War and docketed at upper left by Adjutant General Lorenzo THOMAS (light soiling and edge toning, minimal creasing.)

Lincoln appoints Henry Moses Judah Brigadier General of Volunteers to rank from March 31, 1862 -- thus appointing the highest-ranking Union officer of Jewish descent. Henry Moses JUDAH (1821–1866) was a West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexican–American War, and career U.S. Army officer. During the Civil War, he played a key role in pursuing Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan during Morgan’s Raid in 1863, and later commanded Union forces at the Battle of Resaca in 1864.

Judah’s Jewish heritage—rooted in the prominent Judah–Seixas families of colonial America—was still publicly acknowledged, even though his family had long since assimilated. In 1862, The American Israelite hailed him as "the only general in the United States service of the Hebrew race"(vol. 9, no. 10, p. 78, Sept. 5, 1862).

Both Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army (Mendelsohn, 2022) and the Shapell Roster Project identify Judah as the highest-ranking Union officer of Jewish descent. A few others—Leopold Blumenberg, Frederick Knefler, Charles Mundee, and Edward S. Salomon—received only the honorary brevet rank of Brigadier General, but Judah alone held a full commission as Brigadier General of Volunteers.