LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Partly-printed document signed ("Abraham Lincoln") as President, Washington, 1 April 1862.

One page, vellum, 490 x 395mm (abrasions to paper seal, stored folded). Countersigned by Gideon WELLES ("Gideon Welles") as Secretary of the Navy.

Abraham Lincoln signs a scarce Marine Corps commission to a cousin of Robert E. Lee whose brother was an officer in the Confederate Marine Corps. Lincoln commissions "Philip R. Fendall Jr." as a "Captain in the Marine Corps from the 26th July 1861." The son of a prominent Alexandria attorney, Philip P. Fendall Jr., had earned his first Marine Corps commission following the Yakima War in 1856. He was stationed at Portsmouth, N.H. at the start of the Civil War and in the spring of 1861 helped burn the Norfolk Navy Yard lest if fall into Confederate hands. Around the same time, Philip's younger brother James secured a commission as a second lieutenant in the Confederate States Marine Battalion. During at least two periods of the war, the first during the Peninsular Campaign and later at Mobile Bay, both brothers would find themselves in the same theatre of war, although it is unclear whether either was aware of the other's presence at the time. They are believed to be the only two brothers to serve on opposite sides of the Civil War as members of their respective marine corps. (See David M. Sullivan, "My Brother My enemy: Philip R. Fendall, Jr. and James R. Y. Fendall," Military Images, Vol. 20, No. 3 (November-December 1988), pp. 24-28.)