Here is a wonderful document! This is an original Presidential signed Ulysses S. Grant Military Appointment Signed "U.S. Grant." This is done on one partially printed page of vellum that measures 15-3/4ths inches by 19-1/2 inches in overall size. It was signed in Washington, D.C. on March 6th, 1869. The document is appointing "Christopher C. Auger...Brigadier General." Auger had a valiant Civil War history as is noted below. Another neat thing about this document is that it is countersigned by General John M. Schofield as Secretary of War. It has the blue paper seal at the top left, along with patriotic vignettes at the top and bottom. Christopher Columbus Augur (1821-1898) graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1843 and served as aide-de-camp to both Gen. Enos D. Hopping and Gen. Caleb Cushing during the Mexican War. After the war, he was sent to the Northwest where he battled the Yakima and Rogue River peoples. When the Civil War erupted, Augur served a short time as commandant of cadets at West Point before being commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers. He was wounded at the Battle of Cedar Mountain (Virginia, August 9, 1862) and was commissioned a major general by Lincoln two months later. Lincoln had to submit the nomination three times before Congress would confirm the appointment on March 10, 1863. He later commanded a division at the Siege of Port Hudson (Louisiana, May 22 through July 9, 1863). After the war, he commanded the Departments of the Platte, Texas (twice), the Gulf, and the South. He retired from the army a Brigadier General in 1885. The piece is accompanied by a modern Xerox image of Grant and Auger.

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