James A. Garfield Autograph Letter Signed

Civil War-dated ALS signed “J. A. Garfield,” one page, 5.25 x 8, December 1, 1862. Letter to his brother and sister, in full: "Your kind letter of the 22nd Nov. was duly received for which please accept my thanks. I should be greatly pleased to accept your kind invitation to visit you, but I am now in a Court Martial which keeps every day engaged. When this work is over, I expect to be off soon for the South. But I shall try to visit you, in case I should have any leisure before I go." In very good to fine condition, with scattered light foxing, and old tape to fold separations on the reverse.

Garfield had entered the Union Army at the start of the war, but returned home in the summer of 1862 to nurse a severe illness. He returned to duty in autumn, first serving on the court that adjudicated the court-martial of Major General Fitz John Porter, a trial that lasted from November through January. Following the Second Battle of Bull Run in late August of 1862, Porter was court-martialed on two separate charges: the first concerned several instances in which he refused to acknowledge the orders of his superior, Major General John Pope; and the second involved his misbehavior in front of the enemy, namely his marked indifference and reluctance to engage with Confederate forces. On March 19, 1879, nearly seventeen years after the courts found Porter guilty, a commission headed by Major General John Schofield issued a report to President Hayes that led to the initial ruling being overturned and Porter controversially reinstated into the U.S. Army. Civil War-dated letters written by Garfield are quite scarce, with examples written to family members, particularly those containing such historical content, of even greater rarity.