American Historical Ephemera and Photography

[CIVIL WAR]. STANFORD, Governor Leland (1824-1893). Early California militia commission signed ("Leland Stanford"), as Governor of California, appointing Anton Ewald Captain of Co. G., First Regiment of Infantry, "Sigel Rifles." 16 September 1863.

1p, 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 (sight), framed to 17 3/4 x 21 1/2 in. (creasing, toning, some dampstaining, unexamined outside frame; moderate scuffing and edge wear to frame). Countersigned by William Kibbe, Adjutant General, and with secretarial signature of A.A.H. Tuttle, Secretary of State. A scarce California war-date appointment.

The Sigel Rifles were an early California Militia which existed as a military unit from 1861 - 1866 based in the greater San Francisco area. A German company, the militia was likely named after Colonel Franz Sigel (1824-1902), a German military officer wo served as a Union major general during the Civil War. The Sigel Rifles was organized in San Francisco and mustered in as a unit of the California State Militia on the twenty-fifth of September 1861. At the time of its organization the company numbered seventy-six rank and file and was attached to the First Regiment of Infantry, Second Brigade. The company was supplied with forty stand of arms on October 7, 1861, and before the end of that year the members had provided their own uniforms and hats. On the twelfth of February, 1864 the company was transferred from the First to the Second Infantry Regiment under Special Order No. 48 of that year, and in August was again transferred to the Sixth (German) Infantry Regiment, Second Brigade and designated as Company B. During the year 1864 the name of the company was also changed from the Sigel Rifles to the Sigel Guard. 

The recipient of this appointment was likely Anton (some records listed as Franz Anton) Ewald (1824-1903), a German immigrant who seems to have arrived in California from Germanysometime in the 1850s. He was elected First Lieutenant September 17, 1862 commissioned September 27, 1862, then Captain, elected September 16, 1863, commissioned September 29, 1863, and reelected September 15, 1864 and September 21, 1865.