Subject: Mordecai family

Two-page document, Circular No. 40, from the Ordnance Office, War Department, Washington, dated August 1, 1864. It details orders and instructions issued to Ordnance officers in July 1864 by Brig. Gen. Geo. D. Ramsay, Chief of Ordnance. Specifically, it mentions the reassignment of Capt. A. Mordecai (Alfred Mordecai, Jr.) from duty with the 10th Corps to Watervliet Arsenal. The document also includes biographical information about Capt. Mordecai and his father, Major Alfred Mordecai, highlighting the latter's decision to retire from the U.S. Army in 1861 to avoid fighting on either side of the Civil War.

An invitation to the "Cadet Hop" at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, on July 4, 1860. The invitation, in its original envelope, was addressed to "The Misses Mordecai" care of Major Mordecai at the Watervliet Arsenal in West Troy, New York. Alfred Mordecai Jr. was a cadet at the academy at the time.