Newly Discovered and Unpublished: President Abraham Lincoln Seeks to Bolster His Colored Regiments, Promoting a Jewish Soldier in the Union Army to Serve as Officer

Falk received the appointment, serving under General Silas Casey on the board responsible for choosing commanders of colored regiments

A remarkable rarity on many levels, and the only such letter we have ever seen connecting the plight of the European Jewish immigrant fleeing persecution with that of Black troops during the Civil War

Acquired from the Descendants of the Recipients and Never Before Offered for Sale

“…I know him to be of very respectable connections. He proposes to be examined preparatory to being appointed an officer in a colored regiment, and I desire…that he may have a fair trial in this cause.”

The only letter of Lincoln we have found referring to the forming of colored regiments having reached the market; the only letter of Lincoln to a Jewish soldier having reached the market

Whether to accept Blacks into the Union Army was a major controversy, one which President Lincoln strongly supported once he felt the ground had been laid and the time was right. Regiments of Black soldiers were authorized on May 22, 1863, when the U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Colored Troops (USCT). In time, some 180,000 Black men enlisted, with an estimated 40,000 losing their lives in the conflict. The longer these Colored troops served, the more justified the decision to use them seemed and opposition melted away. But all of the Colored Regiments were led by appointed white officers; the first Black officer was commissioned in 1877.

Louis Falk was a Russian Jew, born in Odessa in 1839 or 1840. Tsar Nicholas I’s decree of August 26, 1827 made Jews liable for military service, and allowed their conscription as early as the age of twelve. The term of service was 25 years. These recruits were underfed and ill-treated, and were removed from home and family for a quarter century, which must have seemed like a lifetime. With the outbreak of the Crimean War in the early 1850s, the draft quota doubled for Russians and quadrupled for Jews. This was looked on as an attack on the Jewish community and caused turmoil. In mid-1856, Falk, not yet 16 years old, like some other young Jewish men, fled Russia to avoid conscription. He made his way to Liverpool, England, and there, on August 14, 1856, took the Ship Kangaroo, Robert Ewing, Captain, burthen 1874 tons, and bound to Philadelphia, where he arrived soon after. He is listed as a passenger on the ship’s manifest, citing him as a carver aged 15.

In August 1860 Falk enlisted in Co. F of the 2nd U.S. Infantry and remained in the service throughout the Civil War. At the time, he lived in East St. Louis, IL. He served for a time under Captain (and later General) Alfred Sully, son of the illustrious artist Thomas Sully. Falk’s unit was in the Peninsula Campaign in 1862, where he was wounded on June 26, 1862 in the battle of Gaines Mill about twenty miles northeast of Richmond, Virginia. The 2nd U.S. Infantry lost 138 men in killed, wounded and missing in that action. In fact, the July 22, 1862 issue of the New York Times lists him on its casualty list. Falk was first treated in the field but then transferred to Bedloe Island Hospital, which was the site of Fort Wood at that time and later became the site of the Statue of Liberty. He was later sent to Washington’s Union Chapel Hospital. After hospitalization he was transferred to General Service for clerical duty. In 1863, he married Grace Pettigrew.

By 1864 Falk felt that he was well enough to serve in the field. He wanted more than clerical duty. Being in Washington and knowing of the need, he sought an officer’s appointment with a colored regiment. An associate of his recommended him for such position, and government records show that Generals Sully and Silas Casey supported his application with recommendations, as did others in the military. Remarkably, Francis E. Spinner, Treasurer of the United States, wrote a letter supporting Falk, saying he knew him personally. That letter survives.

However, in an incident not recorded to history, it appears that Falk gained an audience with President Lincoln himself. Lincoln, in this letter, never before offered for sale, unpublished, and evidently handed to Falk, Lincoln not only showed his interest in promoting Falk, a Jewish soldier, but wanted to see him put as an officer in a “colored regiment.”

Unpublished Autograph letter signed, on Executive Mansion letterhead, Washington, August 15, 1864, unaddressed but referring to Falk as “bearer” and meant for the eyes of Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, asking that Falk be placed in the process of being an officer in a Colored Regiment. “The bearer of this is a young man from Illinois of whom I personally know very little, though I know him to be of very respectable connections. He proposes to be examined preparatory to being appointed an officer in a colored regiment, and I desire what I have no doubt he would receive without any interference of mine, that he may have a fair trial in this cause. A. Lincoln”.

From the language “The bearer of this”, it seems clear that Falk met with Lincoln personally and left the White House with this letter. It is unpublished. We obtained it directly from the Falk descendants and it has never before been offered for sale.

Falk received the appointment and served as leading clerk for the Board of Commissioners for choosing officers for Colored Regiments.

As for Falk, after being discharged from the army in 1865 he joined the Masons. On June 24, 1867 he became a naturalized US citizen. He started working at the Treasury Department in August 1865, becoming an engraver from 1867 to 1876. In the 1870 U.S. Census, Louis and Grace Falk were living in Washington, DC, and he was a Treasury Clerk. In Washington, he came to know President Garfield after someone said to him, “You could be him.” Because the resemblance was so strong, Louis wanted to meet this man he resembled, and upon meeting they reportedly became friends. Falk left the Treasury Department in 1876 to return to Russia to bring his mother over to the U.S. (supposedly against his wife’s wishes). By 1880, Louis and Grace were divorced. He and his second wife Jenny Swed, a Jewish woman, moved to Palatka, Florida, where he operated the Arlington Hotel, considered a world class establishment, and owned a dry goods store called The Arcade. Louis died in 1900.

To say this letter is extraordinary would be an understatement. It is a triple rarity. Although we see Lincoln endorsements or notes on small cards that are unpublished, it is a rare occurrence indeed to find a full letter that is newly-discovered.