Abraham Lincoln, 21 February 1862

LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Document signed ("Abraham Lincoln") as President, Washington, 21 February 1862.

One page on vellum, 450 x 350mm (blue paper seal partly detached, mild creases). Countersigned by Edwin STANTON (1814-1869) as Secretary of War.

Abraham Lincoln appoints a surgeon for the Union Army. An attractive military commission for "T[homas] F[rancis] Azpell" who Lincoln had nominated for the post of "Brigade Surgeon of Volunteers." Azpell, a Pennsylvania native, joined the Union Army as a surgeon in October 1861 and brevetted a lieutenant colonel for faithful and meritorious service in 1865. Following the war, Azpell remained in the service and was promoted to assistant surgeon in 1867 and was stationed at Fort Gaston in California where he worked among the Native people of the Hoopa Valley (Heitman; U.S. Statutes at Large, 16 Jan. 1877),

[With:] Azpell's brevet lieutenant-colonel's commission, 26 March 1866, as well as his commission as assistant surgeon, 24 July 1867, both bearing the stamped signatures of President Andrew Johnson and Edwin Stanton. One page each on vellum. [Also with:] Azpell's doctor of medicine degree conferred by Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1849. One page on vellum. Together, four pieces.