The Kilbourne Collection of CSA Stamps and Postal History continued...

VERY FINE AND REMARKABLY CHOICE CONDITION. AN EXTREMELY RARE COMBINATION OF THE 10-CENT ROSE AND A PAIR OF THE 5-CENT BLUE LITHOGRAPH ON COVER, PAYING DOUBLE THE 10-CENT RATE FOR DISTANCE GREATER THAN 500 MILES.

The 10c Rose is rare used with any other stamps, especially its color-change counterpart, the 5c Blue Lithograph. This very rare double-rate cover was sent over 500 miles, prior to the universal 10c rate on July 1, 1862. While the cover is slightly larger than normal, it is smaller than legal-size and will easily fit on an album or exhibit page.

Ex "Tara". With 1965 C.S.A. certificate (Image)

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VERY FINE. ONE OF THREE RECORDED PRISONER-OF-WAR COVERS WITH THE 10-CENT ROSE LITHOGRAPH, WHICH FOLLOWED A RARE FLAG-OF-TRUCE EXCHANGE ROUTE VIA PETERSBURG AND OLD POINT COMFORT. THIS WAS DESCRIBED IN THE EARL ANTRIM BOOK AS "PERHAPS THE MOST DESIRABLE OF ALL THE CONFEDERATE PRISONER-OF-WAR COVERS" -- AN OPINION WITH WHICH WE CERTAINLY AGREE.

When Federal troops occupied Norfolk on May 9, 1862, the C.S.A. flag-of-truce exchange point was moved up the James River to Aiken's Landing, Virginia, with the U.S. exchange point remaining across the Chesapeake Bay at Fortress Monroe. Aiken's Landing was used by the C.S.A. for only a short time, after which their exchange point was moved to City Point, Virginia. With the July 1862 implementation of the prisoner exchange cartel, prisoner populations were temporarily drastically reduced and flag-of-truce mail exchanges were virtually eliminated. Because of the very short period of time this route was in existence, mail via Petersburg is among the rarest of prisoners' flag-of-truce mail. These covers also represent the earliest possible mixed-franking covers with U.S. and Confederate stamps.

Joseph L. Parry was chief engineer on the U.S. transport steamer Union when it ran aground on November 3, 1861, on the North Carolina coast. Parry was held at Salisbury Prison until his exchange in September 1862. The Parry correspondence to and from the prison was described in two outstanding articles by Lawrence Lohr in the Confederate Philatelist in 1995 and 2008.

We record only three 10c Rose lithographs on prisoner-of-war covers (not counting civilian flag-of-truce covers). Each was sent from Salisbury Prison, and the other two (both to Maine) bear only the 10c Rose, without the U.S. 3c 1861 (see Siegel Sales 1071, lot 4678 and 1087, lot 581). A very similar cover from the Parry correspondence, but franked with a 10c Blue Hoyer & Ludwig issue, was in the Steven Walske collection (Siegel Sale 988, lot 107).

Illustrated in Antrim Civil War Prisons and Their Covers on p. 154 (Image)

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FINE AND EXCEPTIONALLY RARE NORTHBOUND CIVILIAN FLAG-OF-TRUCE COVER WITH THE 10-CENT ROSE LITHOGRAPH.

It is not clear to us how this flag-of-truce cover was handled. The regulations required the use of two envelopes for flag-of-truce mail. Ordinarily, on a South-to-North letter, the outer envelope would bear Confederate postage and an appropriately worded "Flag of Truce" address. At the exchange point the inner envelope bearing U.S. postage would be removed and put into the Federal mails. In this instance, it appears that the envelope bearing Confederate postage (the 10c Rose) was examined by the Confederate censor (manuscript "Exd") and placed into the mails, receiving a Federal "Due 3" handstamp. While the regulations were often breached by placing Confederate and U.S. stamps on one envelope, this cover -- without any Federal postmark other than the "Due 3" -- is enigmatic and obviously extremely rare, if not unique.

Ex Murphy and Walske. Illustrated in Antrim book on p. 195 (Image)

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