John Adams Signed Appointment to A Former Revolutionary Officer

ADAMS, John (1735-1826). Partly-printed document signed ("John Adams") as President, Washington, 27 January 1801.

One page, 485 x 382mm, vellum with scalloped edge and remnants of wax seal at top left (heavy soiling impacting signature, engrossment inscription faint) but with a very bold signature.

Adams appoints a former Revolutionary War captain, captured at Germantown, to rank of Major. Thomas Martin fought along the Virginia Line throughout the American Revolution, being a Second Lieutenant in the Ninth Virginia Regiment when he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Germantown on 4 October 1777. His captivity was referenced in a 1780 memorial sent by captured Virginia officers to Governor Thomas Jefferson, pleading with Jefferson to provide some aid after a year without receiving any supplies or clothing ("Memorial of the Officers of the Virginia Line in Captivity, 24 May 1780," Founders Online, National Archives,

Martin was later transferred to the Fifth Virginia Regiment, where he served through the end of the war with the rank of Captain (Heitman). Martin would be honorably discharged in 1802 due to the implemented Military Peace Establishment Act, in which the Jefferson administration dramatically reduced the size of the U.S. Army. Though, likely due to his service on the Virginia Line, an old and infirm Martin would write Jefferson twice more to solicit a military position, writing in a September 16, 1803 letter: "as I have always experienced your friendship, [I] must once more beg your Attention to my Claims, as it might be a means of releiveing me and my little family from poverty. It seems that an Arsenal is to be fixd at the Mouth of Licking..." Martin would be appointed military storekeeper of that post the following year ("To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Martin, 16 September 1803," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-41-02-0290).

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