Commission from Adjutant General Thomas H. Cushing for Doctor Alexander Blair as Surgeon's Mate with Pennsylvania's 5th Regiment of Infantry

1812. Good +. 1 leaf folded into 4 pages with handwritten signed letter on one page, dated 23 Dec. 1812, Washington City. In response to a letter from Doctor Alexander Blair, in Buffalo, N.Y., Cushing enclosed his commission as surgeon's mate with Pennsylvania's 5th Regiment of Infantry. (The commission is not present.) Thomas Humphrey Cushing (1755-1822) fought during the American Revolution; he was adjutant and inspector general of the Army in 1797, 1798, and from 1800 to 1807. In 1811 he was arrested and court martialed on charges of disobedience and misuse of government funds; a year later he was acquitted on most of the charges and received an official reprimand. Two months later, on July 2, 1812, he was promoted to brigadier general. He served as adjutant general of the Army from July 6, 1812, to March 12, 1813. After that he was made commander of Military District No. 1; after the war he retired from the Army and was soon appointed collector of cusoms for the port of New London, Conn. Alexander Blair (1789-1830) had just completed his medical studies and opened an office and drug store in Washington, Pa., in the spring of 1812; after war was declared in June 1812 he applied for a commission as a surgeon's mate, which he recieved. He was promoted to surgeon in March 1814; after the war ended in 1815 he returned to Washington, Pa. In Good+ Condition: creased; paper is browned and slightly discolored; starting to separate along folds; chip out of one side, without loss of text.