President Abraham Lincoln Appoints a Signal Corps Officer Who Would Serve with Sherman on the March to the Sea

A real rarity, the first Lincoln appointment to the Signal Corps for an officer active in Sherman’s Georgia Campaign we have seen

On March 29, 1860, the United States House of Representatives approved the Army appropriations bill for fiscal year 1861, which included the following amendment: “For the manufacture or purchase of apparatus and equipment for field signals, $2000; and that there be added to the staff of the Army one signal officer, with the rank, pay, and allowance of a major of cavalry, who shall have charge, under the direction of the Secretary of War, of all signal duty, and all books, papers, and apparatus connected therewith.” The United States Senate eventually approved the appropriations bill, over the objections of Jefferson Davis, now Senator from Mississippi, and President James Buchanan signed it into law on June 21, 1860, the date now celebrated as the birthday of the modern U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Now armies on the go could report back to their civilian leadership in real time, and those leaders could make decisions without waiting for a messenger on horse. This changed the face of warfare. President Lincoln himself spent significant time in the telegraph office sending and receiving war correspondence. He often walked alone from the White House to the office, and chatted with the operators. As Bates later wrote, “During the Civil War the President spent more of his waking hours in the War Department telegraph office than in any other place, except the White House. While in the Telegraph Office he was comparatively free from official cares, and therefore more apt to disclose his natural traits and disposition than elsewhere under other conditions.”

John Quincy Adams first enlisted in 1862 with the 38th Ohio Volunteers. On October 15 of that year he was a quartermaster sergeant with the 10th Ohio Cavalry. After a stint as acting lieutenant, on July 15, 1864, he was appointed by the President Second Lieutenant, to date from March 3, 1863. Adams was actively involved in the Georgia campaign conducted by Gen. William T. Sherman. He was with left wing of the 16th Army Corps on the march to Chattanooga, Tenn. In the Atlanta Campaign he participated in the battles of Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain. and Jonesboro. He manned signal corps stations at Kenesaw Mt., and Allatoona.

Adams was in the engagements at Port McAllister and Rice Mill station, in the campaign from Savannah through the Carolinas, including battles at Columbia, Bentonville, and Raleigh; and at the surrender of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to Sherman on April 26, 1865. Adams was breveted 1st lieutenant for gallant and meritorious service in the Signal Corps at the battle of Allatoona; he was breveted captain for gallant and meritorious services in the Signal Corps at the capture of Fort McAllister and Savannah, and throughout the war. Adams was mustered out August 22, 1865. After the war, he was in the 1st U. S. Cavalry and was in the Indian wars, and finished his career as captain and aide to Gen. O.O. Howard in October 1884. He is listed on the roster of the U.S. Signal Corps in the Civil War.

Adams is also a protagonist in one of the most famous telegraph exchanges of the war during the battle near Allatoona. During this battle, legend goes that Sherman signaled to General Corse and his men to “hold the fort”, a phrase that inspired the later popular religious hymn entitled Hold the Fort by Chicago evangelist Philip P. Bliss, which featured the chorus, ‘Hold the fort, for I am coming,’ which then became a common expression. We still use “hold down the fort” today. Adams was the signal officer who received that message, or rather a variant, as Sherman did not use that exact phrase, though captured the sentiment.

This is President Lincoln’s appointment of Adams as Second Lieutenant. Document signed, Washington, July 15, 1864, naming Adams “Second Lieutenant in the Signal Corps,” dating from the third of March, 1863.

This document is a real rarity, as we have never before seen a Lincoln appointment to the Signal Corps for an officer active in Sherman’s March to the Sea. Moreover, Lincoln Signal Corps appointments are themselves uncommon, this being our first.

It was acquired from the Adams descendants and has never been offered for sale before.