Endorsing a voucher of payment for a group of laborers on the Memphis & Charleston Rail Road, signed July 1862, "Jas. B. McPherson Brig Genl & Supt."
Partly printed form, 8 1/2 x 14 inches, completed in a clerical hand and signed by McPherson; the form was printed for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, the notation for the "Memphis & Charleston R.R." added in manuscript, and was also signed by a foreman and seven laborers for completed work. An Ohio native, McPherson finished first in West Point's class of 1853 and served in the Corps of Engineers until the outbreak of war. His meteoric rise took him from lieutenant of engineers in August, 1861, to the command of a division in October, 1862; along the way, he served as Grant's chief engineer, superintendent of railroads in West Tennessee, and as a brigade commander. He commanded a corps at Vicksburg and Sherman's Army of the Tennessee in the Atlanta campaign, where he was killed 22 July 1864. "Sherman's tears rolled through his beard and down on the floor when he viewed the body of his friend laid upon a door torn from its hinges and improvised as a bier" (Generals in Blue). No Union general was more beloved by his troops. War era autograph material by McPherson is uncommon. Folded. Very good. Item #53654
Price: $1,250.00