1880 Special Orders HQ of the Army signed by A-G Townsend (2 of 2)

Set of 6 different orders:

• Hartley, 22d Infantry, report to Maj. Scott, 3d Artillery, in charge of publication of official record of the rebellion
• Lanster, 8^th Cavalry, to be discharged
• Lichtenburg, General Services US Army, to be discharged
• Newhouse, 4^th Artillery, to be discharged
• General Court Martial of recruit Watson, currently at Leavenworth Military Prison, unexecuted portion of sentence remitted
• Wealsh, 2^nd Infantry, to be discharged (enlisted under false pretences)

Signed by ‘E.D. Townsend’.

Handwriting at bottom ‘Chief Clerk War Dept.'

On December 14, 1877, Major/Bvt. Lt. Col. Scott took charge of the team compiling the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion for both Union and Confederate armies.

In 1880, the 8^th Cavalry was involved in the Indian Wars (Texas, New Mexico).

Nice condition.

20.25 x 19 cm

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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