Two (2) President Andrew Johnson War Commission Documents. 1st item: Military appointment commission document with steel engraved stamp signature for President Andrew Johnson, hand signed by Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, conferring the rank of Commander in the Navy to John G. Walker, dated July 26, 1866 with red seal. "Registered No. Forty Three. The lowest number of the same date take rank" signed William Pelloran, in black ink, lower left of sheet. 19 1/2" H x 15 3/4" W. Biography: John Grimes Walker (1835-1907) was an admiral in the United States Navy who served during the Civil War. He was promoted to commander in 1866 and served as Assistant Superintendent of the Naval Academy from 1866 to 1869. Appointed rear admiral in 1894, he took the White Squadron to Hawaii in 1895 when a coup d'etat posed a threat to American interests. In retirement, he led commissions to investigate the construction of a Central American canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 2nd item: Military appointment commission document with steel engraved stamp signature for President Andrew Johnson, hand signed by Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, conferring the rank of First Lieutenant to John E. Norcro[s]s, dated June 25, 1866 with blue seal. "Recorded Volume 4, page 136, Adjutant General's Office, June 25, 1866" in red ink, signed by Edward D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General, top left of sheet. 19 1/2" H x 15 3/8" W. Biography (courtesy Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who served in the Civil War): John E. Norcross (British, b. 1842) became a newspaper reporter in the early part of 1860 on the Philadelphia Ledger. In the latter part of that year he was stationed in Washington, where he did service in the Senate gallery as an assistant in the Globe corps, and duly recorded the farewells of the secession Senators. Immediately after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln he went to Harrisburg to assist in the reporting corps of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and was so engaged at the firing on Sumter. He enlisted in the Union Army in time to serve with the Twentieth Regiment in the Gettysburg campaign. On the 30th of July, 1863, two days after his return from the latter service, he was conscripted, having been enrolled during his absence in Europe, and was assigned, by request, to the One Hundred and Eighteenth Pennsylvania, better known as the Corn Exchange Regiment, with which he served until the latter part of April, 1864, when he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Twenty-fifth Regiment United States Colored Troops then part of the garrison at Fort Barrancas. After some months of duty with the regiment he was made ordinance officer at the Fort Pickens depot, and was subsequently appointed on the staff of Major-General Canby, commanding the Military Division of the West Mississippi, and took part in the operations which ended in the capture of Mobile. For a time he was engaged in taking evidence before the Special Investigating Commission, of which Major-General William F. Smith was president. By this time active hostilities had ceased, and on the 10th of June, 1865, he forwarded his resignation, which was accepted. Subsequently he received the brevet rank of First Lieutenant, to date from June 20, 1865. He at once reentered journalism, and was one of the editorial force of the Philadelphia Press, the newspaper for which he had been an army correspondent. Provenance: Anne P. and Thomas A. Gray Library and MESDA Research Center. CONDITION: 1st item: Overall very good condition. Areas of toning, surface of sheet. Toning impressions from text, surface of sheet. Few holes, largest 1/8", surface of sheet and center of seal. 2nd item: Overall very good condition. Light toning, edges of sheet. Few minute foxing spots, surface of sheet. Pencil marks, surface of sheet. 1/2" black scuff, center right en verso.