Item: ON10767
Original U.S. Civil War Federal Brigadier General Edward Merwin Lee Commissions by Brevet - Custer's Unit
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Original Items: One-of-a-kind set. These are two original Commissions by Brevet named to Edward Merwin Lee of 5th Regiment Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. Two Partly-printed vellum documents, both dated 1866 for commission by BREVET to Colonel and the second is to the promotion of Brigadier General, both site March 1865 of the date of the promotions but the documents themselves are dated April 1866. Given by President Andrew Johnson, (printed signature) and signed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Both documents are legible and in good condition and measure approximately 15″ x 18". Some water damage visible but does not significantly impact the overall appearance or appeal.
Born in Guilford, Connecticut, Edward Merwin Lee (1835-1913) was a frontier attorney who advanced to the rank of Lt. Colonel, 5th Michigan Cavalry while serving in Custer’s famed Michigan Brigade during the Civil War. Living at Port Huron, Lee had enlisted in August 1862 as 1st Lieutenant of Company E. Promoted Captain on January 1, 1863, Lee was present at Gettysburg where Custer’s “Wolverines” became legendary. He was later captured at Bucklands Mills, Virginia on October 19, 1863 and spent the next 14 months as a POW confined at Macon and Columbia before being paroled on December 9, 1864.
Captain Lee returned to his regiment and participated in the closing battles that led to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. While not officially commended for any notable act of heroism during the subsequent Appomattox Campaign, incredibly, Lee quickly became the recipient of two coveted brevet promotions in March 1865—Colonel and Brigadier General—“for gallant and meritorious conduct during the war.” Additionally, he was advanced to Lieutenant Colonel on April 13, 1865. Collectively, the promotions represent an unprecedented series of accolades for a soldier-prisoner who otherwise, according to records, just did his job. Given the meteoric rise, one can only speculate on Custer’s possible influence for whatever reason. Lt. Colonel Lee was serving as AAAG on General Wyndam’s staff at Fort Leavenworth when he mustered out of volunteer service on June 22, 1865.
Post-war, Lee returned to Guilford and entered politics, being elected a Republican member of the State General Assembly in 1866-67. Upon the organization of the Wyoming Territory in July 1868, Lee was appointed by President Grant as “Secretary of the new territory with the powers of acting governor,” a position he held until the inauguration of the first territorial governor in 1869. While acting governor the progressively minded Lee “secured the passage of the first equal suffrage bill” in the United States, officially giving women in the Wyoming Territory the right to vote. Lee returned to New York City late in 1869 and opened a law office where he practiced continuously until his death on January 1, 1913. Lee never married and was interred in the West Side Cemetery (Lot 137) in Guilford, CT.
Edwin M. Stanton – American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the Civil War. He organized the manhunt for Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth. After President Lincoln’s assassination, Stanton remained on as the Secretary of War under the new U.S. President Andrew Johnson. Stanton opposed Johnson’s lenient policies towards the former Confederate States. President Johnson’s opposition ultimately led to him being impeached by the Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives. Stanton retired from the position of Secretary of War in 1869 and was nominated as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by Johnson’s successor, President Ulysses S. Grant. Stanton unfortunately died four days after his nomination was confirmed by the Senate.
A brevet rank was an honorary promotion given to an officer (or occasionally, an enlisted man) in recognition of gallant conduct or other meritorious service. They served much the same purpose that medals play today (our modern system of medals did not exist at the time of the Civil War).
A brevet rank was an honorary promotion given to an officer (or occasionally, an enlisted man) in recognition of gallant conduct or other meritorious service. They served much the same purpose that medals play today (our modern system of medals did not exist at the time of the Civil War).
A brevet rank was almost meaningless in terms of real authority. For example, a major who was a brevet colonel collected the pay of a major, wore the uniform of a major, could not give orders to lieutenant colonels, and was only eligible for commands that normally fell to majors. But he was allowed to use the title of colonel in his correspondence.
In addition, there were some unusual circumstances where brevet rank carried authority. For instance, when a force consisted partly of Regular troops and partly of state militia, command would go to the officer with the highest brevet rank (who might neither be the highest ranking regular officer nor the highest ranking volunteer!). This came up during the Mexican War on some occasions, and seems to have been designed to allow Regular officers with brevets (implying experience) to assume command over higher-ranking militia officers who had neither experience nor brevets.
An officer could also claim his brevet rank when serving on court-martial duty. Since an officer cannot be tried by officers ranking lower than himself, using brevet ranks allowed more people to qualify as possible court members.
During the war itself, brevets were very difficult to get and were a sign of valor, but on March 13, 1865, the War Department gave one brevet and sometimes two to nearly every officer on duty with the army. This angered many officers and men, who saw it as trivializing the efforts of men who won brevets in combat. (J.L. Chamberlain mentions this in his memoirs, for instance.)
Like regular ranks, brevets were kept separately for the U.S. Volunteers and the U.S. Army. Thus one man could have four ranks: an actual Volunteer rank, a brevet Volunteer rank, an actual Regular rank, and a brevet Regular rank. Brevets in the Regular army were sometimes used to honor men who had already been brevetted Major General in the Volunteers and could not be brevetted again (in the Volunteers), as no brevet Lieutenant Generals were created during the war (Winfield Scott had been made Brevet Lieutenant General [of Regulars] during the Mexican War).
Brevet ranks were authorized for the Regular Army in the Articles of War of 1806; they were authorized for the US Volunteers on March 3, 1863. Partly as a result of dissatisfaction with the end-of-war brevet giveaway, brevet promotions were discontinued in 1869; although officers who had been given brevets before that date continued to use them. They were reinstated for the Spanish-American war and continued in use until after World War I.
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