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HERE ARE TWO IMPORTANT US ARMY CAREER MILITARY OFFICER AUTOGRAPHS ON AN 1845 ANTEBELLUM ALS BY WILLIAM ANDERSON THORNTON (1803 – 1866) CIVIL WAR WEST POINT UNION BVT BRIGADIER GENERAL, USA , CIVIL WAR COLONEL ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT, CIVIL WAR COMMANDER OF THE WATERVLIET ARSENAL AT GOVERNOR’S ISLAND, NEW YORK -&- FLORIDA SEMINOLE INDIAN WAR and MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR OFFICER. -AND- RUFUS LATHROP BAKER (1790 – 1868) LT.COLONEL and CAPTAIN OF ORDNANCE 1832-1854, MEXICAN WAR ORDNANCE MAJOR and CAPTAIN AT THE WATERVLIET ARSENAL 1830-1840s, WAR OF 1812 1st LIEUTENANT and ASST DEPUTY COMMISSARY OF ORDNANCE 1813-1832 -&- PRESIDENT OF SHARPS RIFLE MANUFACTURING Co. > BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. WILLIAM A. THORNTON William A. Thornton was born in Albany, N.Y. in 1802. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. in 1825. He served in the Black Hawk Expedition of 1832 and in Charleston Harbor, S.C. with General Winfield Scott from 1832-33. In 1855, Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, sent Major Thornton to New Mexico where he served as Chief of Ordnance of the Department of New Mexico until 1857. Returning across the plains, he contracted a lung condition from which he never fully recovered. As Brevet Brigadier General he took command of New York Arsenal at Governor’s Island, N.Y. where he died April 6, 1866. He is buried in Vale Cemetery, Schenectady, New York (Section G). MILITARY SERVICE BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. WILLIAM A. THORNTON – CULLOM’S REGISTER 403 (Born N. Y.) William A. Thornton (Ap’d N. Y.) 12 Military History. — Cadet at the Military Academy, July 1, 1820, to July 1, 1825, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to Bvt. Second Lieut., 1st Artillery, July 1, 1825. Second Lieut., 4th Artillery, July 1, 1825. Served: in garrison at Ft. Monroe, Va. (Artillery School for Practice), 1825‑26; on survey of Dismal Swamp Canal, 1826; at the Military Academy, as Asst. Instructor of Infantry Tactics, Sep. 21, 1826, to July 16, 1829; on Ordnance duty at Watertown Arsenal, Mas., July 16, 1829, to Sep. 26, 1831; in garrison at Ft. Monroe, Va. (Artillery School for Practice), 1831‑32; in on the “Black Hawk Expedition,” 1832, but not at the seat of war; a in garrison at Charleston harbor, S. C., 1832‑33, during South Carolina’s threatened nullification; on Ordnance duty at Watervliet Arsenal, N. Y., Mar. 27, 1833, to Oct. 15, 1836; in the (First Lieut., 4th Artillery, Jan. 31, 1835) Florida War, on Quartermaster duty, 1836‑37; on Ordnance duty at Watervliet Arsenal, N. Y., May 15, 1837, to July 7, 1838; as Asst. Ordnance Officer on Niagara Frontier, July 7 to Oct. 27, 1838; in command (Captain, Ordnance, July 7, 1838) of Mt. Vernon Arsenal, Ala., and putting in order the armament of the Gulf Defenses, 1838‑40, — and of New York Ordnance Depot, 1840‑48; as Inspector of Contract Arms, 1840‑54; in command of Watertown Arsenal, Mas., 1842 (during the Dorr Rebellion outbreak in Rhode Island) (Bvt. Major, May 30, 1848, for Meritorious Conduct) and 1848‑51, — and of New York Ordnance Depot, 1851‑54; as Member of Ordnance Board for the trial of Small Arms, Jan. 13 to Feb. 19, 1855; in command of St. Louis Arsenal, Mo., 1855; as Chief of Ordnance of the Department of New Mexico, Aug. 31, 1855, to Oct. 1, 1857; as Member of Ordnance Board for testing the strength of heavy guns and gun carriages, Jan. 6‑19, 1858; in preparing building materials, at Watervliet, N. Y., for an Arsenal in California, 1858; in command of (Major, Ordnance, May 28, 1861) New York Ordnance Depot, and as Inspector of Contract Arms, 1858‑61; p347 and as Member of Board to test the merits of James and Schencle’s Rifled Cannon, 1859. Served during the Rebellion of the Seceding States, 1861‑66; in command of Watervliet Arsenal, N. Y., May 14, 1861, to Dec. 17, 1863; as (Lieut.‑Colonel, Ordnance, Mar. 3, 1863) (Colonel, Ordnance, Sep. 15, 1863) Inspector of Contract Arms and Ordnance, Dec. 17, 1863, to Apr. 6, (Bvt. Brig.‑General, U. S. Army, Mar. 13, 1865, for Faithful and Meritorious Services in the Ordnance Department) 1866; and in command of New York Arsenal, June 19, 1865, to Apr. 6, 1866. Died, Apr. 6, 1866, at Governor’s Island, N. Y.: Aged 63. BIOGRAPHY OF COL. RUFUS BAKER Rufus Baker (1790-1868) was born to Joseph Baker and Lucy Devotion in Windham, Connecticut. He married Eliza Taintor, daughter of Charles Taintor, in June 1818. They had two children: Charles Taintor Baker, born in 1822 in Windham County, Connecticut; and William Rufus Baker, born in 1830 at Allegheny Arsenal, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Baker served in the United States Army as first lieutenant assistant deputy commissary of ordnance in 1813, captain of ordnance in 1832, and lieutenant colonel in 1851. In 1818, Baker was ordered to Detroit to establish an arsenal, which he completed in 1819 at a site in Dearborn, Michigan. He resigned from office in 1854, and spent the remaining 14 years of his life largely devoted to the state Democratic Party, running unsuccessfully for Congress. Baker was elected President of Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company in 1856, shortly after the company’s manufacturing operations moved from Windsor, Vermont, to Hartford, Connecticut. When Colonel Rufus Lathrop Baker was born on 6 December 1790, in Brooklyn, Windham, Connecticut, United States, his father, Dr. Joseph Baker, was 41 and his mother, Lucy Devotion, was 36. He married Eliza Taintor on 2 June 1818, in Norwich, New London, Connecticut, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons. He lived in Windham, Windham, Connecticut, United States in 1860. He died on 5 June 1868, in Windham, Connecticut, United States, at the age of 77, and was buried in Windham, Windham, Connecticut, United States. PROVENANCE OF PURCHASE HISTORY Proud member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club (UACC), The Ephemera Society of America, the Manuscript Society & the American Political Items Collectors (APIC). I subscribe to each organizations’ code of ethics and authenticity is guaranteed. ~Providing quality service & historical memorabilia online for over twenty years.~