Wounded at Salem Church, Virginia in the 1863 Chancellorsville campaign

Commanded the 1st Corps at Gettysburg after the death of General John F. Reynolds

Very Desirable War Date First Corps Signature With Rank & Date

(1822-95) Born in Norfolk, Virginia, the city that his father Thomas Newton, Jr. represented in the U.S. Congress for 31 years. He graduated #2 in the West Point class of 1842, and was commissioned lieutenant in the elite Corps of Engineers. He taught engineering at the United States Military Academy, from 1843–46, and constructed numerous fortifications along the Atlantic coast, and the Great Lakes from 1846–52. He was a member of a special Gulf Coast defense board in 1856, and was appointed Chief Engineer, of the Utah Expedition in 1858. Newton, the native Virginian, remained loyal to the Union when the Civil War broke out in April 1861, and he was commissioned a brigadier general on September 23, 1861, and during the ensuing winter he employed his engineering skills to good use and strengthened the defenses around, Washington, D.C. During General McClellan's 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, Newton commanded a brigade in the ensuing battles. During the 1862 Maryland Campaign, he led a bayonet charge at South Mountain that resulted in taking the enemy position, and he also fought at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history, on September 17, 1862. Newton commanded a division in the 6th Corps, in the disastrous Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., on December 13, 1862. He was conspicuous in storming Marye's Heights during the 1863 Chancellorsville campaign, and he was wounded at Salem Church, Va. At the battle of Gettysburg, he was appointed to take over the command of the 1st Corps after the death of General John F. Reynolds, during the first day's battle, on July 1, 1863, by the Commander of the Army of the Potomac George G. Meade. After Gettysburg, General Newton was sent west to join the Army of General William T. Sherman, who regarded him to be a skilled commander. Newton fought gallantly in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, commanding the 2nd Division, 4th Corps, under command of General George H. Thomas. At the Battle of Peachtree Creek, Ga., he prevented a dangerous Confederate movement against Sherman and his rapidly constructed works allowed him to turn back the Confederate thrust, a victory that gained him accolades for his Civil War military career. After the capture of Atlanta, Newton commanded the District of Key West and the Tortugas, Florida, of the Department of the Gulf, from 1864 to 1866. After the war, Newton returned to the Corps of Engineers, where he oversaw improvements to the waterways around New York City, and to the Hudson River. He also had charge of New York Harbor defenses until he was appointed Chief of Engineers in 1884. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and retired from the U.S. Army in 1886, after forty-four years of meritorious service. He served as Commissioner of Public Works, in New York City, from 1886–88, and as President of the Panama Railroad Company from 1888–95. General Newton died in New York City on May 1, 1895, of complications from a heart disease and was originally buried at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens on May 4, 1895. He was then re-interred at his beloved United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., on June 14, 1895.

War Date Signature With Rank: 5 x 3 1/2, signed in ink, with army imprint at the top of the sheet of paper. Headquarters First Army Corps, Dec. 12th, 1863. Compliments of John Newton, Major Genl. Light age toning, and wear, with some small mounting traces at the corners of the reverse. Very nicely signed. Extremely desirable war date example of this hard fighting Union general. Comes with an excellent, 8 x 10, black and white copy photograph, of General Newton in uniform.