Hospital Attendants 8th Regiment N.Y.V. Cavalry. Manuscript document. WITH Autograph endorsement signed by Ambrose P. Hill, as Confederate Major General. Harpers Ferry, [Virginia], 17 September 1862. 

A very rare wartime endorsement by Confederate Lieutenant General Ambrose P. Hill (1825-1865). Here, he endorses a document listing Union soldiers who were taken prisoner during the Battle of Harper's Ferry.

His note, dated two days after the surrender, reads in full: "The above officers and men have been paroled [and] are permitted to pass into the Federal lines." 

Harpers Ferry was under siege by Stonewall Jackson from 12 September 1862 until the entire garrison surrendered on the 15th. Over 12,000 soldiers, including those listed here, were captured as Confederate prisoners of war (POW) - the largest Union surrender of the entire war. The document lists 30 hospital nurses, staff, and patients from the 8th New York Cavalry. 

Ambrose P. Hill would go on to lead Hill's Light Division through the battles of Cedar Mountain, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. After Stonewall's death, Hill was promoted to lieutenant general and placed in command of the newly formed Third Corps, which he led into Gettysburg. He led his men through the Overland Campaign and several battles of the Siege of Petersburg. During the final defense of Petersburg, he was shot in the chest on 2 April 1865. 

Wartime documents signed by Hill are quite scarce, especially with such compelling content. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]

Excisement to lower right.