William McKinley Signed Military Commission.

[MCKINLEY, William].

Item Number: 143915

Partially-printed military commission signed by William McKinley as President of the United States. One page, partially printed on vellum and retaining the original blue seal, the commission is dated February 19, 1898 and appoints Francis M. Bunce a “Rear Admiral in the Navy from the 6th day of February 1898 in the service of the United States.” Signed by William McKinley as President of the United States and countersigned by  Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long. This was the highest rank achieved by Francis M. Bunce during his long and storied 40-plus year career in the Navy, one that began as a midshipman before the Civil War when he was 19-years-old. A graduate of one of the earliest classes of the United States Naval Academy in 1857, he gained attention for his service during the Civil War where he served in various roles and assisted in the Union Army’s naval blockade of the Confederate States. Immediately after the war, he commanded the USS Monadnock around the treacherous Cape Horn on a voyage to California, the first long distance deployment of an ironclad monitor. Also, he at various points took command of the of the Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York Navy Yards, as well as commanded several gunboats, cruisers, and sloops-of-war. His leadership as commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Squadron from 1895-97 saw the fleet modernized into an effective combat unit that would successfully defeat the Spanish Navy during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He was appointed by the Senate to this role only a few days before the fateful sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana, Cuba, whose demise contributed to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, in April, 1898. The fate of the Maine was connected to an order made by Bunce while he was Commander of the New York Navy Yard, when on December 8, 1897, he ordered the ship to Key West, Florida to rendezvous with the rest of the North Atlantic Squadron. In January, 1898, the Maine was sent to Havana to assist in the protection of U.S. interests during the Cuban War of Independence, where on November 15 (five days prior to this document’s signing) an explosion occurred on board, sinking the vessel. Bunce remained commander of the New York Navy Yard until December, 1898, when he retired. He died in Hartford, Connecticut on October 19, 1901, and is buried there, in Cedar Hill Cemetery. Provenance: by descent in the Bunce family. In near fine condition. The entire piece measures 19 inches by 15.5 inches.