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Table of Contents > Autographs > Lot 16 |
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Lot Number: 16
Click for a Printable PageSign-in to Bid or Register to Bid Estimate Range: $5,000 - $6,000 |
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President James Madison Appoints Future Rear Admiral Hiram Paulding as Midshipman ... at Thirteen Years of Age ! |
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JAMES MADISON (1751-1836). Founding Father from Virginia who served as the 4th President of the United States (1809-1817); hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in Drafting and Promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights; President during the War of 1812 against Great Britain. September 1, 1811-Dated, President James Madison Signed, "James Madison" as President, Partially-Printed Vellum Naval Warrant, 1 page, measuring 12.5” x 8”, at Washington, Framed, Choice Very Fine. This scarce historic Naval Warrant Appointment is made to future Rear Admiral “Hiram Paulding” as Midshipman of the United States Navy. Mounted and professionally custom matted and framed together with “H. Paulding” and “Cadwalader Ringgold (USS Sabine)” signatures on a Postal Transmittal Cover rectangular cut, and at left, is a large handsome color Portrait of James Madison, all beautifully displayed under special UV Plexiglas, fully to the overall size of 26.5” x 18”.HIRAM PAULDING (1797-1878). Commodore and Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, who served from the War of 1812 until after the Civil War; Appointed Midshipman on September 1, 1811 (This Document); During the War of 1812, he served on Lakes Ontario and Champlain, Commanding the second division from Ticonderoga during the Battle of Lake Champlain; after the War of 1812 he served in Constellation, off the Algerian coast, and in Independence, the brig Prometheus, and Macedonian. CADWALADER RINGGOLD (1802-1867). Officer in the United States Navy who served in the United States Exploring Expedition, promoted to Commander on July 16, 1849, and began the definitive survey of the San Francisco Bay region, and, after initially retiring, returned to service during the Civil War; in Command of the frigate Sabine on November 1, 1861. Hiram Paulding's extensive naval career spanned many wars over the decades. He received this Appointment at the age of just Thirteen Years Old. Paulding had originally applied for the United States Army but was turned away, likely because he was just a boy of Thirteen, and only received this Appointment after some influential friends helped his cause. As a teenage soldier, Paulding studied mathematics and navigation until the War of 1812 broke out, and he was ordered to report for duty on the Hudson River. On September 11, 1814, at only Sixteen Years Old, Paulding Commanded the Second Division of the Ticonderoga during the Battle of Lake Champlain, for which he received $1,500 in prize money for his bravery. From there, Paulding's military career skyrocketed, serving as the Commander of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard during the Civil War, by which time he was appointed as Rear Admiral. Naval warrants are rare on the market in comparison to naval commissions. Until the late nineteenth century, commissions were largely given to men with either previous military experience or aristocratic backgrounds. Warrants did not take lineage, profession, or position into account, thereby offering promising individuals specialized positions. Typically creased along quarterfolds with light tone to the margins, not affecting signature. Well printed in deep black rich brown manuscript portions with a pencil notation (1811) at bottom. Not examined outside of the ornate custom wooden frame, ready to hang on display. The signature “James Madison” at bottom right measures 2.5” long being very clear. See Reference: Life of Hiram Paulding Rear-Admiral, U.S.N., by Rebecca Paulding Meade, New York: The Baker and Taylor Company, 1910. During the War of 1812, he served on Lakes Ontario and Champlain, commanding the second division from Ticonderoga during the Battle of Lake Champlain. After the war he served in Constellation, off the Algerian coast, and in Independence, the brig Prometheus, and Macedonian. On his return from service in Macedonian with the Pacific Squadron (1818-1821), he spent a year's leave at Capt. Alden Partridge’s Military Academy (later Norwich University), Norwich, Vermont. In the ensuing years of the decade he served in Sea Gull on the West Indies station, and in United States on the Pacific station. While serving on the United States Paulding was chosen to carry Commodore Hull's dispatches from Callao, Peru, to the mountain headquarters of General Simon Bolivar in the Andes; Paulding's journey of 1,500 miles on horseback was later recorded in his book, Bolivar in His War Camp. The following year he volunteered to serve under John "Roaring Jack" Percival in the Dolphin as that vessel pursued mutineers of the whaler Globe, then returned to United States. In 1830 he rejoined Constellation to serve as 1st Lieutenant, as she cruised the Mediterranean for two years, and in 1834 assumed command of the schooner Shark for another Mediterranean tour. Appointed to Command the sloop-of-war Levant in 1838, he made a cruise in the West Indies and in 1841 became Executive Officer of the New York Navy Yard. In 1844, Paulding was promoted to Captain, and in 1845 he assumed Command of Vincennes for a three-year East Indian cruise and took command of that station with the departure of Commodore James Biddle for the United States. Between 1848 and 1852 he commanded St. Lawrence in the Baltic, North, and Mediterranean Seas, then assumed Command of the Washington Navy Yard. Promoted to Commodore, Paulding took Command of the Home Squadron followed aboard the flagship Wabash. The squadron was instrumental in foiling the expedition against Nicaragua underway by the American William Walker, who had dreamed of uniting the nations of Central America into a vast military empire led by himself. Through insurrection, Walker became President of Nicaragua in 1856 when Costa Rica declared war to him. After his surrender to an allied Central American Army and his return to the United States, William Walker attempted for a military comeback when he was captured in 1857 by a landing of Home Squadron Marines. Stateside controversy over the questionable legality of seizing American nationals in foreign, neutral lands prompted President James Buchanan to relieve Paulding of his command, forcing him into retirement. In 1861, Paulding was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to assist in building up a wartime fleet. He then took over the New York Navy Yard. Paulding was assigned to evacuate ships from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, which the Confederates planned to seize, in April 1861. Paulding found that Charles Stewart McCauley, commander of the navy yard, had ordered destruction of the ships. Paulding had to complete the work of burning and scuttling the largest number of the ships. He was able to remove the USS Cumberland, towed by the USS Pawnee. The USS Merrimack was burned to the waterline, but it was refitted latter as the CSS Virginia. In August 1861, Paulding was named by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to the Ironclad Board, responsible for approving designs for and construction of ironclad warships. The result was the construction of USS New Ironsides, USS Galena and (most famously) USS Monitor. Then the Commandant of the New York Navy Yard (c. 1864-1865). After the Civil War Commodore Paulding served as Governor of the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia and as Post-admiral at Boston. Paulding died at Huntington, Long Island, New York, 20th October 1878. He published a Journal of a Cruise Among the Islands of the Pacific (1831). The destroyer USS Paulding (DD-22) was named in honor of Rear Admiral Paulding. ___ Cadwalader Ringgold was born August 20, 1802, in Washington County, Maryland, at Fountain Rock, the 18,000-acre (7,300 ha) family estate. His mother was Maria Cadwalader (1776-1811), daughter of John Cadwalader (1742-1786), who was a General during the American Revolutionary War. Some sources spell his first name with two "l"s. His father was Samuel Ringgold, a Maryland politician who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He had an older brother, Samuel Ringgold, an army officer called "the father of modern artillery" and who died in the Battle of Palo Alto. Ringgold entered the U.S. Navy in 1819 and commanded the schooner USS Weasel in action against West Indies pirates during the late 1820s. He became a lieutenant on May 17, 1828, and that year served on Vandalia in the Pacific Ocean. He served on the “Adams” in the Mediterranean. During 1838-42, he was third in command of the United States Exploring Expedition in the Pacific, commanding Porpoise from 1840 at the invitation of the head of the project, Charles Wilkes. He carried out surveys of Antarctica, the South American coast, the Tuamotu Islands, Tonga, New Zealand and the Northwest Pacific coast of North America. When the expedition visited Fiji, they captured Vendoni, a Chief on the islands who had inspired some Fijians to capture and eat 11 crewmen on a ship seven years before. Soon afterward, Fijians on the island of Malolo ambushed and killed two popular officers of the expedition, and the Americans took revenge. Wilkes's ship grounded on the north side of the island, but Ringgold led 80 men from the south side. Women and children were spared, but about 87 Fijians were killed before the rest surrendered. Two villages were destroyed. Ringgold was promoted to Commander on July 16, 1849, and began the definitive survey of the San Francisco Bay region, suddenly important because of the discovery of gold in the area. The survey began in August 1849, with Ringgold commanding the chartered brig Col. Fremont. After the California surveys, Ringgold helped Navy officials choose a location for a dockyard for the Navy's Pacific station. It later became the Mare Island Navy Yard. He published A Series of Charts with Sailing Directions in 1851. Together with Commodore Matthew Perry and others, Ringgold served in August 1852 on the Board of Examination for midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. In 1853 he took command of the five ships in the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, also known as the "Rodgers-Ringgold Expedition", with the Vincennes as his flagship, but while on the expedition, in July 1854, he contracted malaria and was sent home, according to at least one source. Nathaniel Philbrick, in his book Sea of Glory about the U.S. Exploring Expedition, writes that in the later expedition Ringgold "began to act strangely" once in China, keeping his ships in port and "ceaselessly repairing his vessels". Commodore Perry, on his own expedition, sailed in and convened an official panel which relieved Ringgold from command of the expedition and sent him home. Philbrick quotes Perry as declaring Ringgold "insane." John Rodgers was given full command of the expedition and completed it. A board of naval doctors convened by Perry declared Ringgold unfit for active service, and he was put on the reserve list on September 13, 1855. Ringgold recovered within weeks, and soon petitioned Congress for his return. Unsuccessful there, he appealed to a Court of Inquiry, and eventually succeeded in returning to the active list on January 23, 1858, (retroactive to April 2, 1856), a campaign of more than two years. Ringgold returned to the fleet with the rank of captain during the Civil War. While in command of the frigate Sabine on November 1, 1861, he effected the rescue of a battalion of 400 Marines from Maryland whose transport steamer, Governor, was sinking during a severe storm near Port Royal, South Carolina. In February 1862, he was a part of the search and rescue of the ship of the line Vermont which had lost her rudder in a storm. For these rescues, Ringgold received commendations from the Maryland Legislature and the U.S. Congress, along with a gold medal from the Life Saving Benevolent Association. Promoted to commodore on July 16, 1862, he was sent (still on the Sabine), to cruise the Azores, Cape Verde Islands, the coast of Brazil and then back to New York in a fruitless search for the Confederate raider CSS Alabama from November 1862 to February 1863. In mid-1863, Ringgold's assignment was to search (again unsuccessfully) in the vicinity of Bermuda and then the New England coast for the bark CSS Tacony, another Confederate raider. For reasons of age, he was retired on August 20, 1864, and placed on the rear admiral (retired) list in 1866 (a promotion that was given to all commanders of squadrons). In retirement, he lived at 18 East Eighteenth Street (at Union Square) in New York City. Ringgold, who had never married, died of apoplexy (stroke) in New York on April 29, 1867. Days later, as the Marine band played the "Dead March" from Saul, 400 Marines and carriages in the funeral cortege proceeded from Ringgold's residence down Broadway to Trinity Church. In attendance were Admirals Farragut, Bell, and Stringham, along with a number of generals. Ringgold's remains were taken by train to Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, where he lies next to the grave of his brother, Major Samuel Ringgold. Two ships have been named in his honor: USS Ringgold (DD-89) and USS Ringgold (DD-500). Ringgold Street in San Francisco, California is named after him. |
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Lot Number: 16
Click for a Printable Page Sign-in to Bid or Register to Bid |
Estimate Range: $5,000 - $6,000 |
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