Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President . Autograph free frank ("A. Lincoln") as President, on envelope addressed in Lincoln's hand to "Hon. C.A. Dana Asst. Sec. of War," indistinct black circular "Washington D.C. Free" 24 February [1865?] datestamp. Front panel only of envelope, clean separations along several vertical folds, neatly silked from the back . Charles Anderson Dana (1819-1897) self-educated himself to the extent that he was able to attend Harvard (class of 1843) and ultimately became sub-editor of the New York Tribune under Horace Greeley. The two men disagreed on political and social issues, though, during the early years of the war, and Dana resigned, under pressure, in March 1862. He was immediately hired as a special commissiner by Stanton. Initially, he was assigned to U.S. Grant's headquarters in the Vicksburg campaign and made daily reports on the operations of the Army of the Mississippi. Dana quickly perceived Grant's qualities of tenacity and natural command, "and by his daily dispatches relieved Grant of much irksome letter-writing." After Vicksburg, he was named Assistant Secretary of War and accompanied the western armies in the field at Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and later followed Grant's Virginia campaigns. He resigned in July 1865 and for the rest of his life had an eventful career as the publisher of the New York Sun (during Grant's presidency Dana became a vociferous critic of the old general's administration).