WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN (1820–1891), OFFICIAL “HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES” COVER,  ADDRESSED AND SIGNED BY SHERMAN

Washington, D.C., n.d. [circa 1869–early 1870s]. One 3 1/4 × 5 3/4 in. printed official-business envelope, upper right boldly signed “W. T. Sherman / General.” Circular Washington cancel at left; addressed in Sherman’s hand to P. B. Ewing, Esq., Lancaster, Ohio.

A choice free-franked cover in Sherman’s large, confident hand, on the imprinted stationery of “Headquarters, Army of the United States.” The addressee, Philemon Beecher Ewing of Lancaster, Sherman’s brother-in-law, shows the general’s continuing ties to his Ohio hometown. The imprint and signature style (“General,” rather than “Maj. Genl.”) indicate use during Sherman’s tenure as Commanding General of the U.S. Army (1869–1883), the position he assumed after Grant’s election to the presidency.

Autograph covers from Sherman on Headquarters imprints are desirable survivals of high-level Army correspondence in the immediate post-Civil War era, linking the architect of the March to the Sea to the institutional Army he led through Reconstruction and the Indian Wars. The family address adds appealing personal association.

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