Lot 1177

ZEALOUS TOWER REQUESTS A PROMOTION

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ZEALOUS TOWER REQUESTS A PROMOTION

Estimate: $200 - $300

Starting Bid: $100

(0 Bids)

by Alexander Historical Auctions LLC
July 31, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
106 East Main Street, Suite 103
Elkton, MD, US 21921

ZEALOUS TOWER REQUESTS A PROMOTION
ZEALOUS B. TOWER (1819 - 1900) Union brigadier general severely wounded at Bull Run, later he fortified Nashville and fought Hood in the region. Lengthy, fine association and content war-date A.L.S. ‘Z. B. Tower' 4pp. 8vo., Nashville, Feb. 12, 1865, to Secretary of the Treasury WILLIAM P. FESSENDEN. Penned on lined sheet and marked ‘Private' at top it reads, in part: ‘…For a month I have thought of writing you in reference to my promotion but have put it off again and again from motives which you can readily infer. Yet am I compelled to see all my old associates ahead of me and a great many young graduated some scarcely 25 years of age Major Generals by Brevet. I do not object to their promotion…You are aware that I gave myself devotedly to this War till an almost-mortal wound incurred in trying to save the day at the 2nd Bull Run Battle put me on the bed and on crutches alternately for 20 months. I went through Pope's Campaign in Virginia (so little understood by the Country) in which our little Army of mostly untried troops after creating a diversion to favor McClellan's forces on the Peninsula held back Lee's advance till our Army could be withdrawn from the James River to cover Washington. On one occasion in that City you said to me that I would have been made a Major General had I not been wounded. If the service rendered entitled me to that distinction it would seem but just that it should be acknowledged now. The flattering manner in which I was twice mentioned by Gen. Pope in his report & the acknowledgment of Gen. McDowell that the hard fighting of my little command on the extreme left after the forces on their right had been driven from the field gave him time to form a line in their rear & thus save the Army from rout would seem sufficient testimony for the award of a bvt-Commission. It is to be inferred from the list of names sent to the Senate probably to be increased by addition from the Armies of the West that a great many brevets will be conferred before the Session of Senate ends. I would like to be brevetted Major General for the 30th August 1862. You are the only person whom I could well ask to assist me. Senators Foster & Harris will probably be well disposed towards me…If you think I am entitled to the distinction suggested your power is sufficient to accomplish it…I am at present in Nashville with Gen. Thomas & can walk quite freely and ride on horseback. The defenses of this place were pushed forward quite rapidly while it was threatened though there never was the slightest chance for the Rebels after the arrival of Gen. A. J. Smith's Corps….Our prospects are very bright…'. Neatly inlaid into a large sheet and near fine. After recovering from his wound at Second Bull Run, Tower was named chief engineer of defenses at Nashville and his work there contributed to the total defeat of John B. Hood. He would finally receive the coveted brevet requested in this letter on January 13, 1866 retroactively to June 12, 1865 – still more than six months after this letter!

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$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
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