COMMISSION SIGNED BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO PROMINENT NAVAL OFFICER WHO HELPED SUPPRESS THE SLAVE TRADE 

Partly engraved officer’s commission, completed secretarially in manuscript and signed by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Issued to Charles C. Carpenter, promoting him to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. Washington, D.C., 21 February 1863. One page, vellum, with original seal. Approx. 14 13/16 x 17 9/16 in. 

An important Civil War naval commission issued to Charles Carroll Carpenter (1834–1899), boldly signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

This document records Carpenter’s promotion to Lieutenant Commander, though he would ultimately retire from the Navy with the rank of Rear Admiral after a long and distinguished career at sea. Appointed a midshipman at the age of sixteen, he first served aboard the USS Portsmouth in the Pacific Squadron. After four years’ service, he entered the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1856. In the antebellum years he served aboard a number of vessels, including several engaged in the suppression of the African slave trade. While stationed on the USS Dolphin, he participated in the capture of the slave ship brig Echo, on board which were more than 300 enslaved Africans.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Carpenter was serving aboard the USS Mohawk, which joined the Union blockade in the Gulf of Mexico as part of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. He later served on the USS Flag, the steamers Anglia and Emily, and the monitor USS Catskill in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Shortly after the present promotion to Lieutenant Commander, he took part in the attacks on the Confederate defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, in the spring and summer of 1863. From the autumn of that year onward, he was assigned to the staff of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he remained through the close of the war.

After the conflict, Carpenter continued his naval service with distinction, alternating between shipboard duty and assignments at the Portsmouth and Boston Navy Yards. On 1 September 1894 he was given command of the Asiatic Squadron, and on 11 November of that year he was promoted to Rear Admiral. He retired the following year, but was recalled to active duty during the Spanish-American War in 1898.

An important naval commission, made especially desirable by Lincoln’s bold signature and by its association with an officer whose career encompassed the African slave trade patrol, the Union blockade, the Charleston operations, and the Navy’s later emergence as a global force.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1860 Election, Election of 1860, 1864 Election, Election of 1864,  Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]