Sold – Abraham Lincoln Appoints a Cavalry Officer in a Battle Regiment

First Lieutenant Frederick C. Ogden enlisted in November 1861 and served for a time in the Far West, but he joined a noted battle regiment – the 1st U.S. Cavalry – at the front in Virginia in March 1863. This regiment was part of General John Buford’s command which on July 1, 1863, ran smack into Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and touched off the Battle of Gettysburg. On that first day at Gettysburg, Buford’s men held off much of the Confederate army long enough for Union forces to arrive and seize the high ground south of the town. This proved the key to winning the battle. Later in 1863, the 1st U.S. Cavalry was engaged at Manassas Junction and Catlett’s Station, November 5; Culpeper, November 8; Stephensburg, November 26, and Mine River. In 1864, it took part in the battles of Todd’s Tavern, May 7, and Spottsylvania Court House, May 8, during which 6 of its 16 officers were wounded and 10 men were killed. The regiment then accompanied General Sheridan on his raid around Richmond and was engaged at Yellow Tavern, May 11; Meadow Bridge, May 12; Mechanicsville, May 12; Tunstall’s Station, May 14; Hawe’s Shop, May 28; Old Church, May 30; Cold Harbor, June 1. Before the Cold Harbor campaign ended on June 12, the regiment moved out and took part in the largest all-cavalry battle ever fought – the Battle of Trevillian Station on June 11 and 12. It suffered severely, taking 32 casualties. Among those killed in action was the battle-hardened Lieutenant Ogden, who had had a premonition of death.

James W. Nicholls was a Tennesseean loyal to the Union and an officer in the regiment. He was appointed Additional Paymaster by Presdent Lincoln in 1863 and brevetted as a Lieutenant Colonel of U.S. Volunteers on March 13, 1865.  After the war, he remained in the service and was named Major and Paymaster, U.S. Army on January 17, 1867. He served in Washington and at several posts on the Western frontier in Montana and in Texas, including Fort Brown, until resigning his commission on July 23, 1875. Nicholls was clearly a friend of Ogden.

Document Signed as President, Washington, February 26, 1863, providing Nicholls with his first appointment as Additional Paymaster. The document is countersigned by General Lorenzo Thomas.

After the war and likely in his later years, something that Ogden had told Nicholls stuck in his mind to the point where Nicholls felt a need to tell the story, and he connected it to the document Lincoln had provided him. So Nicholls glued a star from the 1st U.S. Cavalry’s flag to his appointment and wrote, “Cut from the guidon of the old 1st U.S. Cavalry & presented to me by little Ogden, adjt [adjutant] of the old 1st Cav., stating that he would be killed at 11 O’clcok, Cold Harbor, Virginia. It was so.”

A guidon is a swallowtail-shaped flag carried at the front of an advancing cavalry or artillery force, or used to gather or rally it in battle. Thus, it was essentially a battle flag used in combat. The guidon from which this star was removed had very likely flown over the battlefield of Gettysburg (if not led the way there), and would certainly have been used throughout the battles of the Virginia campaign of 1864. Attached to a Lincoln appointment with its story written beneath, this star has the finest provenance imaginable.