3d Battalion
The Commonwealth of Virginia
To Walter H. Taylor. Greeting:
Know you, That from special trust and confidence reposed in your fidelity, courage and good conduct, our GOVERNOR, in pursuance of the authority vested in him by the Constitution and Laws of this Commonwealth, doth commission you a Second Lieutenant of Lt Infantry in the 3d Battalion Volunteers of the 9th Brigade and 4th Division of the Virginia Militia, to rank as such from the first day of December 1860
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name as
Governor, and caused the Seal of the Commonwealth to
be affixed, this 1st day of January 1861
John Letcher
Source: The Archives of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Papers of the Lee Family, Box 8, M2009.247
Transcribed by Caitlin Connelly, 2016 July 11