American Historical Ephemera & Photography

1 page, 4to, 7 3/4 x 10 3/8 in., brown spotting and chipping to edges, matted and framed with photographic portraits of Hooker and Sickles, not examined out of frame. 

The document makes a request for wall, shelter, and hospital tents, spades, knapsacks, rubber blankets, and haversacks for the use of the "second Brigade, Hookers Division." The request is signed in approval by General Daniel Sickles, and again by General Joseph Hooker. 

The Excelsior Brigade, also known as Sickles' Brigade, as General Sickles recruited and was the first commander. The divisional command was given to General Hooker in October 1861, initially tasked with the defense of Washington and disrupting Confederate supply lines in southern Maryland. Sickles was forced to relinquish command of the Brigade in March 1862 before the Battle of Williamsburg, where the brigade fought in significant actions. The document dates from this period of Hooker's command of the Division. 

Also twice signed by Captain John S. Austin, identified to Company K of the 72nd New York Infantry, one of the five infantry regiments mustered by Sickles as part of the Excelsior Brigade. He enlisted on 15 May 1861 in New York City, and was commissioned on 21 June 1861. The 72nd New York and Excelsior Brigade saw many of the War's major battles, including Yorktown, Williamsburg, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign (including the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor), and the Siege of Petersburg. Austin was promoted twice to lieutenant colonel (25 October 1862) and colonel (4 May 1863).