American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography, including The Larry Ness Collection of Native American Photography

1p, approx. 16 x 19 3/4 (creasing at folds, toning, scattered spotting). Docketing to upper left corner.

An appointment for Charles H. Burd (1835-1893) as Second Lieutenant in the Veteran Reserve Corps. Signed by President Lincoln and countersigned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Provenance: Consignor relates that the document was left to her great-grandmother, Burridell Barker Snow (1890-1991), by a relative of 2nd Lt. Charles Burd. Burd's relative was purportedly a resident at a boarding house operated by Snow in Newton, Massachusetts.

HDS indicates that Charles H. Burd of Belfast, Maine, enlisted on 6/15/1861 as a 2nd Lieut. and was commissioned into "F" Co. Maine 4th Infantry. He was listed as: Wounded 7/21/1861 Bull Run, VA, POW 7/21/1861 Bull Run, VA, and Confined 7/23/1861 Richmond, VA (Estimated day; exchanged). The 4th Maine was regularly engaged throughout the war, but just over a month after 2nd Lieut. Burd was commissioned into the Union Army he was shot in the head and captured at the First Battle of Bull Run. After spending nine months in Libby Prison, Burd was finally exchanged. His head wound and unlikely recovery became a case study as recorded in The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part I, Volume II: Surgical History by U. S. Army Surgeon General's Office, 1870. The account of his injury and later surgical interventions, reads, in part: "Lieutenant Charles W. [sic] Burd, Co. F, 4th Maine Volunteers, aged 26 years, was admitted to the Hygeia Hospital at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, on February 20th, 1862, from the prison in Richmond in which he had been incarcerated. He had been struck at the first battle of Bull Run, July 21st, 1861, on the left side of the frontal bone by a round musket ball, and was supposed by his comrades to have been mortally wounded. He was made a prisoner and conveyed to Richmond. A projection was felt under the scalp about four inches from the wound in the integument and an incision was made over it, from which half a bullet with a polished cut surface was extracted. He remained seven months at Richmond, during which time the wound in his forehead continued open and suppurated freely. On his release he was examined at the hospital at Fort Monroe, by Surgeon John M. Cuyler. U. S. A., who discovered a metallic substance deep in the wound.... The foreign body was extracted and proved to be a portion of the ball having imbedded in it a small fragment of bone. On February 27th, after repeated efforts, the remainder of the ball was extracted and a piece of the inner table of the skull which had been driven before the ball was also removed....On February 28th two pieces of the inner table which had been driven down before the ball, were extracted, one measuring ten lines in length and five lines in breath, the other piece was small. The patient afterwards came under the care of Dr. John Mason Warren, of Boston....Lieutenant Burd recovered and rejoined his regiment and served during the war, and was mustered out on August 2d, 1866, and pensioned."