Autograph letter signed by Brigadier General Benjamin Franklin Kelley (1807-1891) to "his Excellency / The President of the United States" Abraham Lincoln. Headquarters, Cumberland, 30 July 1864. 2 pages, 4to. 

Kelley writes President Lincoln to recommend Rev. Alfred Paull for the position of chaplain of the newly created Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling, West Virginia. Paull (1815-1872), the son of a judge, was the first pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church in Wheeling. One of the directors of the Young Men's Christian Association since its organization, he also served as director and chairman of the executive committee of the Wheeling city hospital. "Having understood the Rev. Alfred Paull is an applicant for the appointment of Chaplain of the Post Hospital at Wheeling, West Va., I would most respectfully recommend him to your favorable consideration for the position...[I] consider him eminently qualified to discharge faithfully the duties of so responsible a position to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. His character as a loyal citizen is irreproachable."

Kelley, a railroad freight merchant, was appointed Brigadier General of the Volunteers of West Virginia during the Civil War. Commanding the West Virginia and Maryland districts, he was charged with guarding the railroads. Captured by partisans at the Cumberland a year after being breveted Major General, he was considered so valuable that the Union Army immediately made an exchange for him. 

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