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Document 15521

JAMES BUCHANAN and JOSEPH HOLT
Appointment of a Second Lieutenant in the Army seven weeks before Fort Sumter.
Partly Printed DS: "James Buchanan" as President and "J. Holt" as Secretary of War, 1p, 14½x19. Washington, 1861 February 26. On vellum. In part: "Know Ye, That reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and abilities of Abraham K. Arnold I have nominated and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint him a him Second Lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Cavalry in the service of the United States: to rank as such from the twenty eighth day of June eighteen hundred and Sixty...." In a letter to the U.S. Senate dated February 5, 1861, and received on February 12, 1861, Secretary of War Holt listed "persons for promotion and appointment in the Army of the United States" including "Brevet Second Lieutenant Abraham K. Arnold to be second lieutenant, June 28, 1860". On February 21, 1861, the U.S. Senate consented to the appointment. On February 26, 1861, by this document, President Buchanan made the appointment "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate". Six days later, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. ABRAHAM K. ARNOLD was promoted to First Lieutenant on April 6, 1861 and to Captain on July 17, 1862. On July 19, 1866, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton recommended to the U.S. Senate "Captain Abraham K. Arnold, of the Fifth Regiment United States Cavalry, to be captain by brevet, for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Gaines's Mill, Virginia, to date from June 27, 1862; and to be major by brevet, for gallant and meritorious, services at the battle of Todd's Tavern, Virginia, to date from May 6, 1864." JOSEPH HOLT served as Buchanan's Postmaster General (1859-1860) and Secretary of War from January 18, 1861 to the end of his administration, March 3, 1861. The Kentucky Democrat supported the Union. Lincoln, grateful for his support, appointed him as the nation's first Judge Advocate General of the Army in September 1862. Holt, a strong opponent of the emancipation of slaves, commented that Blacks were "unprepared for freedom and whose presence could not fail to prove a source of painful apprehension if not of terror to the homes and families of all." He was the chief prosecutor at the Military Commission that tried the Lincoln conspirators. Foxed, touching signatures. Folds, horizontal fold touches top portion of Holt's signature. Rippled. Buchanan's signature is light but totally legible and is 4½ inches long.

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