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- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).
16th President of the
United States (1861-1865). An Uncommon Document Signed,
"A. Lincoln". A Rare Personalized "Oath
of December 8," being a War-dated Signed Order
as President, accomplished on a 3.5 in. by 2.25 in. slip by Lincoln's
personal secretary John Hay (later Secretary of State). Reads
in full: "Let Patrick Ennis be released on taking the
oath of Dec. 8, 1863. / March 9, 1865". Signed "A.
Lincoln," in a rich black ink.
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- The December 8, 1863, Proclamation
of Amnesty and Reconstruction pardoned Confederates prisoners
who took an oath of loyalty to the Constitution and swore to
support the Emancipation Proclamation. It was part of Lincoln's
general plan for reconciliation with the South, and all Confederate
soldiers were required to take "The Oath of December 8th,"
to be repatriated into the Union. Though Lincoln and his personal
secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay spent many hours writing
out the orders "Let the Man take the Oath of Dec. 1863
and be released", this is the first personalized order
we've seen or handled.
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- The storied history of the Private
Patrick H. Ennis is scarce, though informative. The saga of Private
Ennis is found in Andrew B. Booth's Records of Louisiana Confederate
Soldiers. Ennis, an Irish immigrant, was a resident of New
Orleans at the beginning of the War. He was single, occupied
as a painter, and then at age 23, enlisted on June 5, 1861, where
he served in Co. B. 6th La. Infantry, stationed at Camp Moore,
La. He was present on all rolls to June, 1863., fought at Gettysburg
in the Second Corp under Jubal Early's Division,
He is listed on rolls for July and Aug. 1863, as absent on sick
leave. However, the Federal Rolls of Prisoners of War list him
as being captured at the skirmish near Williamsport, Md., July
14, 1863, during the retreat from Gettysburg. He was forwarded
from Harrisburg, Pa., and then transfered to Philadelphia, Pa.,
Aug. 14, 1863, and finally received at Ft. Delaware, Del., Aug.
15, 1863. A little over a year later he was paroled at Ft. Delaware,
Del. (September of 1864, presumably where he took the Oath of
Dec. 8th for the first time), and sent to Aiken's Landing, Va.
on Sept. 18, 1864, and exchanged at Varina, Va., Sept. 22, 1864,
where he is all but lost to history with the exception of the
following March, when the 27 year old Irishman took an oath to
uphold the Constitution of the United States and to support the
principles of the Emancipation Proclamation for the final time.
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- Great history on a very personal
level. Light adhesion remnants along the bottom edge, with remnants
on the verso, otherwise in very fine condition. SOLD (#10973)
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