Fine Books and Manuscripts

Partially printed document signed ("Andrew Johnson") as President, one page, on engraved vellum, with embossed seal affixed at lower center. Washington, January 22, 1866. Framed and matted, (36 x 42 cm., sight). Folded in eighths, light soiling to Navy Department seal, light fading to ink, diagonal crease at upper right corner, otherwise in very good condition. Appointment of Frank L. Church to First Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Countersigned by Gideon Welles as Secretary of of the Navy. From one of Chicago's oldest and most influential families, Church first joined the Corps in July of 1862, and served in Admiral David Dixon Porter's Mississippi Squadron, most notably during General Nathaniel Banks infamous Red River Campaign of 1864. His since-published journal provides one fo the few first-hand accounts by a Civil War Marine. With only 93 officers in the entire Corps, signed Presidential Marine Corps commssions of the Civil War era are very uncommon.