MAJOR GENERAL ANDREW A. HUMPHREYS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/24/1880 - HFSID 30352
Price: $900.00
ANDREW ATKINSON HUMPRHEYS
Gettysburg hero writes to Winfield Hancock, whom he replaced as Corps
Commander, on his nomination for the U.S. Presidency
Autograph Letter signed: "A. A. Humphreys", 1p, 4¾x7¾. Washington,
D.C., 1880 June 24. On black-bordered mourning paper to Major General
Winfield Scott Hancock, U.S. Army, New York. Docketed on verso. In full:
"I have this moment heard of your nomination for the Presidency by the
Democratic Convention. I am delighted. Not only is it a personal tribute to your
own high qualities, but to the Army of the Potomac of which you are a fitting
emblem. Of your election I have no doubt. I believe your views upon all the
great questions of the day are sound, and I am confident that in the discharge
of your duties as President you will, as you always have done, see that exact
justice is done to all. Sincerely yours". Andrew Atkinson Humphreys
(1810-1883), West Point graduate of 1831, performed mainly engineering duties
for the U.S. Army until the Civil War provided him with the opportunity to prove
his mettle as a warrior. After serving on the staff of General George McClellan,
he was promoted to a divisional command (September 1862), leading with
distinction in the Maryland campaign and at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.
At Gettysburg (1863), as a division commander in General Daniel Sickles' III
Corps, Humphreys led the valiant resistance to Confederate assaults after
General Sickles unwisely ordered the corps forward into exposed positions
between the opposing armies. Promoted to Chief of Staff to General Meade,
commanding general of the Army of the Potomac, he assumed command of General
Hancock's II Corps in 1864 after Hancock's Gettysburg wounds compelled him
to quit field service. He was brevetted Major General for gallantry at
Sayler's Creek. At war's end, he was by far the oldest corps commander in
the Army of the Potomac. With the permanent rank of Brigadier General, he served
as Chief of Engineers until his retirement in 1879. Humphreys' confidence
in Hancock's election proved ill-founded, although not by much. He lost to
another Union general, James A. Garfield, by a mere 10,000 votes out of over 9
million cast (214-155 Electoral Votes). Light vertical line and ink transfer
from prior folding of letter. Otherwise, fine condition.
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