Brevet Brigadier General James F. Rusling War-Date document dated December 12th, 1862 and signed, “James F. Rusling / Capt & a.q.m”. Letter is written on very desirable “Headquarters Sickles’ Division” letter head. This of course refers to the notorious General Daniel Sickles, who gained his fame at Gettysburg through his mistakes made there.  Measures 8”x10”, excellent condition; slight yellowing along edges. Pair of holes punched along left margin.

Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General. An 1854 graduate of Dickinson College, he entered the Pennsylvania Bar in 1857, and the New Jersey Bar in 1859, and served as the Morris County solicitor just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. When the war erupted in April 1861, he enlisted in the Union Army, receiving a commission of 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Quartermaster of the 5th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry on August 5, 1861. He served in that capacity through the organization and training of the unit, and during its first taste of combat in the Spring 1862 Peninsular Campaign. His able administrative skills were noticed by superiors, and resigned his New Jersey commission on June 21, 1862 to accept a commission of Captain in the Union Army's Volunteer Quartermasters Corps. He was then assigned as the Assistant Quartermaster on the staff of Brig. General Joseph B. Carr, where he served from June 1862 to May 1863, when he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and made Assistant Quartermaster for III Corps commander Maj. General Daniel E. Sickles. He served in this role until after the Gettysburg Campaign (which saw the III Corps get wrecked and greatly reduced), after which he was detailed as the Chief Assistant Quartermaster for the Department of the Cumberland. As the war was winding down, he was promoted to Colonel, and made full time Inspector of the QM Department. He remained in the Army well after the end of the conflict, being brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers on February 16, 1866 for "faithful and meritorious services", and being mustered out in September 1867. He returned to his law practice, rising to prominence in Trenton, New Jersey, where he engaged in both law, real estate, and was a pension agent right up until his passing in that city in 1918. Considered a keen observer of his times, he published several books, such as "Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days" (1899), his observations of his Civil War experiences, "The Great West and Pacific Coast" (1877), which detailed his experiences while making an Inspection tour of the American Western Frontiers in 1866 and 1867, and "European Days and Ways" (1902), a work that gave an American eyewitness perspective of Europe in the opening days of the 20th Century.

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