GENERAL WILLIAM SPRAGUE - AUTOGRAPH - HFSID 44657
Sale Price $150.00
Reg. $180.00
WILLIAM SPRAGUE
Civil War Governor and Senator
Signature: "William Sprague/R.I.", 4½x7 page affixed to 5½x8½ album
leaf. William Sprague IV (1830-1915), who was the Republican Governor of
Rhode Island (1860-1863) when the American Civil War broke out, raised
troops that participated in the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21,
1861. Sprague, who at first believed that the war would last only 48
hours, was offered a commission as Brigadier General of Volunteers on
August 9, 1861, but he declined the appointment. Sprague attended the Loyal War
Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania in 1862 to show his support
for Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and Union war efforts. He
resigned his governorship on March 3, 1863 to become a U.S. Senator from
Rhode Island (1863-1875). Sprague, who had amassed a fortune with his
family's weaving mills, was first married to Kate Chase (1863-1882),
the daughter of Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase.
After the couple's divorce, he later married Dora Inez Clavert of West Virginia
and rekindled his interest in politics, becoming the Town Council
President of Narragansett, Rhode Island in 1900. After a fire destroyed the
couple's mansion there, they moved to Paris, where Sprague died. Signature page
slightly soiled. Album leaf irregularly trimmed, with corner creases. Otherwise,
fine condition.
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