Rare Frontier Guards discharge document, dated 20 April 1861 and signed by two of the Guards as well as U.S. Senator James Lane who created the unit to protect President Lincoln from assassination, kidnapping or coup at the start of the Civil War. With the Secret Service not yet established, the safety of the new President was tenuous after the attack on Fort Sumter, surrounded as he was by states sympathetic to the Confederacy, and Union troops still en route to the city. Lane took action, organizing a group of 116 men who operated from the East Room of the White House, guarding Lincoln, the White House, nearby railroads and sensitive government buildings. Though only serving for two weeks, these men very well may have sustained the Union during its most vulnerable period. Document reads in full,
''Armory Frontier Guard
East Room White House
Washington City April 20 1861
This is to certify that S. Sisson was this day Honorably discharged from the Frontier Guards occupying the Post of Honor in the Presidents House.'' Signed by ''Mark W. Delahay 1st Lt.'', ''J.B. [Job] Stockton 2nd Lt.'' and approved by ''J.H. Lane / Capt-''.
Single page on blue lined paper measures 7.675'' x 9.75''. Creasing and some browning along fold lines. Very good plus condition. Accompanied by the non-fiction book, ''The 116 / The True Story of Abraham Lincoln's Lost Guard''.