|
Civil War and Reconstruction |
|
Requesting Another Battery of Artillery During the Siege of Yorktown
CHARLES SMITH HAMILTON (1822-1891),
Autograph Letter Signed (“C. S. Hamilton”), as General U.S. Army, with additional autograph endorsements on verso by S. P. Heintzelman, James A. Hardie and William F. Barry. Div. Hd. Qrs., April 12, 1862. To Gen. S. Williams. 2 pp, 7¾ x 10 in., ruled paper, closed tear.
In the middle of the Civil War Siege of Yorktown, General Charles Hamilton fruitlessly asks for more artillery.
Item #20363.05, $800
|
|
Beauregard’s Thanks for Donation for “our gallant soldiers now battling manfully for our rights & our Independence…”
G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Col. Charles J. Helm in Havana Cuba. From Charleston, S.C., January 28, 1863. On “Head Quarters, Department of South Carolina, Georgia & Florida” stationery. Endorsed on verso by Helm. 1 p., 8 x 9⅞ in.
A cordial letter to Col. Charles J. Helm, Confederate agent in the West Indies, sending thanks to “Mrs. Phebe M. Newcomb” for her donation of wool socks to the Confederate Army. He takes the opportunity to speak eloquently to the privations that Southern troops, specifically the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, have endured. “Permit me to thank you, & thro’ you Mrs. Phebe M. Newcomb, for the wollen socks she has been kind enough to make…”
Item #21784, $3,900
|
|
Naval Commander Who Prevented Filibustering Expedition against Mexico, and Then Captured Slave Ships and Freed over 1,350 Slaves
THOMAS A. DORNIN,
Manuscript Letter Signed, U.S.S. Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia, April 4, 1855, to Mid. John Walker, U.S.N. 1 p.
Item #20956, $450
|
|
“I thought Cump would advise you as to the movements here…”
THOMAS EWING, JR,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Thomas Ewing, his father. Washington, May 22, 1861. Written in pencil. 6 pp., 4⅞ x 7¾ in.
“Genl Scott is in bad humor with the administration for appointing Reeder Brig Genl in regular army … We have the idea he will not favor Cump’s appt, except as Colonel…”
Ewing informs his father of political machinations in Washington and early Civil War plans and appointments. He painstakingly weighs the chances of his foster brother (and brother-in-law), William T. “Cump” Sherman, obtaining a general’s commission. He also offers a sober analysis of the relative strengths of the Union and Confederate armies in the Eastern theater. “The general impression is the first battle, after Pickens, will be at Norfolk. The Govt. is not ready. Genl Scott says Genl Impatience is the only opposing General he fears. At present, it is plain the enemy can put man for man in the field anywhere in eastern Virginia with us.”
Item #21772, $1,250
|
|
South Carolina Impressment Agent Negotiates With General Beauregard for the Release of Slaves to their Masters
WILLIAM SHANNON,
Autograph Letter Signed, to General Thomas Jordan. Charleston, August 17, 1863, 2 pp. With: newspaper advertisement, entitled: “Labor For Coast Defences,” a public letter from Governor M.L. Bonham, August 19, 1863, 1 p.
Shannon, a militia colonel and state agent for the impressment of slave labor, requests the discharge of a number of slaves impressed for labor on military fortifications in Charleston, from the chief of staff of General Beauregard. Local planters depended on Shannon to force the state governor and the Confederate army to abide by the terms of the legislation granting the power to impress slave labor, in this case for a month’s time. A rare document concerning the joint effort between the Confederate government and the local planters to use slave labor for military fortifications. “I am officially identified with the success of a scheme which I have labored earnestly to make efficient, outside of that motive no man can be more deeply interested than I am in the success of the defence of Charleston, but I feel constrained from a sense of duty to ask the discharge of those Negroes furnished under the call for the 15th July, who have worked over thirty days and which are relieved by the supply rendered in the past few days. The motive prompting this direct application is that I am informed by the Engineer Department that the Negroes could not be discharged…”
Item #21799, $2,000
|
|
“The Christian Banner” – Pro-Confederate Paper From Union-Occupied Fredericksburg
[CIVIL WAR – CONFEDERACY],
Newspaper. June 11, 1862. The Christian Banner, Fredericksburg, Va., J.W. Hunnicutt, Vol. 1, Number 6. 4 pp., large folio.
“The colored population of Fredericksburg are strolling about town and seem to be perfectly happy our country is ruined and slaughtered worse than beeves all on account of the negroes! Can it be possible, that man will sacrifice their country for the negro…”
A fine war-date newspaper published in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Articles on the front page describe the destruction of President Jefferson Davis’s Mississippi plantation, the Battle of Memphis, military actions near Richmond and an account of operations near Charleston, South Carolina. Several other articles deal with the subject of slavery.
Item #21798, $1,250
|
|
Opposing the Confederate Draft
[CIVIL WAR – CONFEDERACY],
Broadside. “The Petition of Certain Non-Conscripts, Respectfully Presented to the Confederate States Congress.” Richmond, August 8, 1862. Signed in print, “The Petitioners, By their Counsel, John H. Gilmer.” 1 p., 7⅞ x 10⅜ in.
Petitioning against General Order No. 46 of the Confederate War Department, which rescinded the part of the Confederate Conscription Act of April 16, 1862 that mandated the discharge of all voluntary enlistees under age 18 or over age 35 in July 1862. “These were the terms of the law. They were plain, unequivocal and mandatory. Common sense – universal public opinion … understood, accepted and adopted the law ... Shall an army order revoke a solemn act of Congress? … Have we a constitutional Government, with specific powers granted … or have we an unlimited Government, dependent only on Executive will or ministerial caprice? Are the People free or is the Executive supreme?”
Item #21781, $1,500
|
|
“The Excursion of the Bought Nominations” Showing Balloon “Union League”
[CIVIL WAR],
Broadside, “The Excursion of the Bought Nominations, The Large Balloon ‘Union League,’ Will Start Immediately. The Balloon is managed by the Old Hunkers in the Ring.” [1864]. 4 ¾ x 8 ½ in.
Item #21986.04, $750
|
|
Union Volunteers Refreshment Saloon
[CIVIL WAR],
Print. Union Volunteers Refreshment Saloon of Philadelphia. James Queen, delineator and lithographer. Philadelphia: Thomas Sinclair, 1861. In period frame, 35 x 29 in.
Showing Union troops arriving in Philadelphia from New Jersey via ferry and marching in formation towards the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, cheered on by Philadelphians. Text at the bottom lists members of the committee and men willing to accept donations for the saloon. This image became a choice souvenir for soldiers passing through Philadelphia.
Item #22953, $1,200
|
|
Board of Engineers to Review Sea Coast Fortifications, Including New York
EDWARD D. TOWNSEND,
Document Signed, printed Special Orders No. 41, Jan. 27, 1864. Creating and Appointing Abbot to a Board of Engineers to review Sea Coast Fortifications, especially New York Harbor.
Item #20577.04, $175
|
|
A Day After Grant’s Capture of Fort Henry, Confederate General Lovell Weakens New Orleans in a Futile Attempt to Shore Up Fort Donelson
MANSFIELD LOVELL,
Autograph Letter Signed, to Albert Sidney Johnston. New Orleans, La., February 7, 1862. 1 p., 8 x 11 in.
In February 1862, General Mansfield Lovell sends reinforcements to Albert Sidney Johnston, the chief Confederate commander in the West, so he can defend Nashville and Fort Donelson. The move was fruitless; Fort Donelson fell to Union troops a week after this letter was written.
Item #21776, $2,900
|
|
“Separating the Loyal from the Disloyal” in Reconstruction North Carolina
[CIVIL WAR],
Archive of materials relating to the administering of loyalty oaths in North Carolina after the Civil War during presidential Reconstruction. 1865-1866.
Item #21814, $4,500
|
|
Report of Attacks on Forts Walker and Beauregard
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN,
Autograph Letter Signed as Confederate Secretary of War, to President Jefferson Davis, with Davis’s endorsement. Richmond, Va., December 30, 1861. 1 p., plus docket, 7⅝ x 8⅞ in.
Benjamin sends his official reports on the attacks on Forts Walker and Beauregard to Jefferson Davis, to be communicated to the Confederate Congress.
Item #20084, $4,500
|
|
First Federal Occupation of Winchester Broadside
[CIVIL WAR],
Broadside, signed in type by Colonel William D. Lewis, Winchester, Virginia, April 17, 1862, 1 p. 12½ x 11 in.
Broadside describing the first occupation of Winchester, Virginia, during the Civil War.
Item #22128, $4,200
|
|
Patriotic Poem by Gov. John A. Andrew
JOHN A. ANDREW, GOVERNOR,
Autograph Manuscript Signed. Boston, Massachusetts, November, 1863. 1p., 7¾ x 9⅞ in.
Item #20068, $380
|
|
Autograph Book Kept by a Jewish Former U.S. and Future Confederate Naval Officer Imprisoned at Fort Warren, Signed by Dozens of Fellow Political and Military Prisoners
[JUDAICA. CIVIL WAR] JULIAN MYERS,
Autograph Album. Fort Warren (Boston), MA, December 1861 to January 1862. 41 inscriptions on rectos of 21 pp., 5 x 7 ¾ in. With two 1899 clippings on Myers’ death of Myers at the rear. Disbound; worn, some leaves may have been lost.
Julian Myers enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 13, against his parent’s wishes. He served with distinction, rising to lieutenant before the Civil War. After a 30-month tour in the China Seas, he was arrested on board the steam sloop of war USS Hartford under Admiral Farragut, in Philadelphia, on December 4, 1861 due to his Confederate sympathies. He used this album to gather signatures from his fellow prisoners at Fort Warren at the mouth of Boston Harbor. While some of the inscriptions are simple autographs, many of the prisoners have added a note explaining their positions and how they came to be imprisoned.
Item #27805, $3,800
|
|