2011 April New York Signature Historical Manuscripts AuctionAuction #6054
Ulysses S. Grant Military Pass Signed "U. S. Grant / Lieut: General." One partly-printed vellum page, 12" x 7.75", C...
Ulysses S. Grant Military Pass Signed "U. S. Grant / Lieut: General." One partly-printed vellum page, 12" x 7.75", City Point, Virginia, July 4, 1864. General Grant writes this military pass from his headquarters during the long Siege of Petersburg for Colonel Absalom H. Markland.
"Pass the bearer Col. A. H. Markland, Special Agent of the Post Office Department for the Army, to and from all points within the military lines of the Armies of the United States at will. The Quarter Master's Department will furnish Col. Markland transportation on all Military Roads and on chartered Steamboats in Government service."
This important military pass is toned with minor wrinkles along the left margin.
More Information: Colonel Markland, a native of Kentucky, was a special agent of the Post Office Department on Grant's staff, as well as a personal friend to the general. The two had met in their early teens as classmates at Maysville Seminary in Kentucky. During the presidential campaign of 1860, Markland supported Abraham Lincoln who, after his election, appointed Markland a special agent in the Post Office Department. His initial assignment was to investigate the loyalty of postmasters to the Union, but Grant soon assigned him charge of mail delivery for his Army of the Tennessee. At the general's urging, Markland transformed the slow, inefficient mail delivery to the troops into a prompt, efficient service that consequently helped improve morale. According to Allen Thorndike Rice's book, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time (1886), Markland had the rare distinction of being "the only person besides President Abraham Lincoln and General U. S. Grant who ever had authority to pass at will through all the armies of the United States, thereby showing the confidential relations between the President, General Grant and himself" (North American Publishing Company, 629). Markland was given the honorary rank of colonel and served under Grant for most of the war, often carrying letters and messages between President Lincoln and generals.
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