Arms, Armor and Militaria Online

Lot of four items discovered together including a certificate issued by the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States from 1892 naming Lieutenant Colonel John Curtis Bundy as a Companion of the First Class of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Document measures 19" in length and 24" in width. It is numbered 9351, and signed by WB Keeler, Chancellor of the aforementioned order, John P. Nicholson, the Recorder in Chief, and Rutherford B. Hays, Commander in Chief. The issue date for the document is February 11, 1892, just one year before President Hayes' death.

Accompanying the document are two Smith's Patent shoulder boards for a Major of Infantry, an officer's sash, and a tintype of a male subject in civilian clothing measuring 1.5" in diameter with the reverse side showing the maker mark ABBOT'S/MACHINE/POCKET/PORTRAIT/150 STATE ST/CHICAGO.

The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States was originally created in 1865 in response to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. With the nation in mourning, rumors abounded that further assassinations might begin targeting other high-ranking members of society in order to sow dissent and disunion. To combat this, the order gathered together former Union officers and created its own system of internal rank. Though a more general attack did not develop, the order remained, and persists to this day as an organization of the descendants of Civil War veterans.

Lietenant Colonel John Curtis Bundy enlisted on August 7, 1861 as a Second Lieutenant in the Illinois Independant Cavalry. By Christmas Day of that year, he was transferred to H Company of the 15th Illinois Cavalry. After serving with the unit for nearly seven months, on July 21,1862, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and moved into the Field and Staff of the short-lived Arkansas 1st Battalion Infantry. Formed by order of General Samual Ryan Curtis after the Battle of Pea Ridge, the 1st Arkansas was composed of local volunteers and Unionists, including those who had opposed secession, and been subjected to assaults and harassment at the hands of the Confederates. Despite their best hopes, the war was far from over in Arkansas, and the unit was to play little direct role in returning the state to the Union. Their enlistments lasted only six months, and the 1st Arkansas Infantry did not see action before its personnel were mustered out, including John Curtis Bundy.