1880 Special Orders HQ of the Army signed by A-G Townsend

SPECIAL ORDERS #11

Set of 8 different orders:

• Allen, 4^th Cavalry to be discharged (enlisted under false pretences)
• Mrs Coligan, laundress of 2nd Artillery, furnished transport
• Lange, 3rd Cavalry to be discharged
• General Court Martial of Cpl. Marks, unexecuted portion of sentence remitted
• Morrell, 11^th Infantry to be discharged (enlisted under false pretences)
• Smead, 3rd Cavalry to be discharged
• Henry Sweeney, 4^th Cavalry leave of absence due to disability extended
• Pvt Williams, 5^th Artillery to be discharged

Signed by ‘E.D. Townsend’

Handwritting at bottom ‘__ Secretary of War dup’

In 1880, the 4^th Cavalry was involved in the Indian Wars (Southern Colorado), the 3^rd cavalry also in the Indian Wars (Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Nebraska).

Slight smudging UL corner.

20.25 x 19 cm

Maj. Sweeney was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831, and came to America when about 20 years of age. He enlisted in the army in 1854, becoming a private in the second regiment of dragoons in New York. He served as an enlisted man for nine years, most of the time as a hospital steward, having been educated as an apothecary in Ireland. In 1863 he was made captain of a colored regiment, and served in that capacity until 1863, when he was appointed a lieutenant in the regular army. Later he was made first lieutenant, then captain and finally was brevetted as major of volunteers for long and faithful service.

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Edward Davis Townsend (1817 – 1893) was Adjutant General of the United States Army from 1869 to 1880.

The grandson of Vice President Elbridge Gerry, Townsend was educated at Boston's Latin School before graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1837. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Second U. S. Artillery and served as that regiment's adjutant and participating in the Second Seminole War and the relocation of the Cherokee Nation. In 1846 he was transferred to the Adjutant General's Corps and assigned to duty in Washington, D.C. He served on the Pacific coast from 1851 to 1856, after which he returned to Washington for the remainder of his career. In February 1869 he was promoted to Brigadier General and became Adjutant General. He retired in 1880. He died in Washington in 1893 after an accidental shock from a cable car and is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington DC.

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