President Chester A. Arthur Appoints a Civil War Signal Corpsman a Captain in the Cavalry

Acquired from the descendants of the recipient and has never been offered for sale before

John Quincy Adams first enlisted in 1862 with the 38th Ohio Volunteers. On October 15 of that year he was a quartermaster sergeant with the 10th Ohio Cavalry, reporting to Cairo, Ill., for Instruction on February 23, 1863. After a stint as acting lieutenant, on July 15, 1864, he was appointed by the President Second Lieutenant, to date from March 3, 1863. Adams was actively involved in the Georgia campaign conducted by Gen. William T. Sherman. He was with left wing of the 16th Army Corps on the march to Chattanooga, Tenn. In the Atlanta Campaign he participated in the battles of Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain. and Jonesboro. He manned signal corps stations at Kenesaw Mt., and Allatoona.

Adams was on “the March to the Sea” with Sherman’s forces. He was in the engagements at Port McAllister and Rice Mill station, in the campaign from Savannah through the Carolinas, including battles at Columbia, Bentonville, and Raleigh; and at the surrender of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to Sherman on April 26, 1865. Adams was breveted 1st lieutenant for gallant and meritorious service in the Signal Corps at the battle of Allatoona; he was breveted captain for gallant and meritorious services in the Signal Corps at the capture of Fort McAllister and Savannah, and throughout the war. Adams was mustered out August 22, 1865. After the war, he was in the 1st U. S. Cavalry and was in the Indian wars, and finished his career as captain and aide to Gen. O.O. Howard in October 1884. He is listed on the roster of the U.S. Signal Corps in the Civil War.

This is President Arthur’s appointment of Adams as Captain in the 1st U. S. Cavalry. Document signed, Washington, December 26, 1884, naming Adams “Captain in the First Regiment of Cavalry”, to rank as such from the thirty first of October, 1884. The document is countersigned by Robert Lincoln as Secretary of War.

In 1884, the 1st Cavalry Division was the only active division in the United States Army with a cavalry designation, and it served during the Indian Wars. In June, 1884, the regiment had been transferred to the Department of Dakota, after a tour of nearly 30 years on the Pacific coast, during the greater part of which time its stations were remote from civilization and its duties of a most arduous character. In their new assignment, the troops were assigned to various forts which had been established during the Indian wars to subjugate the Sioux, Cheyenne Crow, and other Indians.

An uncommon appointment assigning an officer to fight in the Indian wars. This was acquired from the descendants of the recipient and has never been offered for sale before.