• Login (enter your user name) and Password
    Please Login. You are NOT Logged in.

    Quick Search:

  • To see new sales and other StampAuctionNetwork news in your Facebook newsfeed then Like us on Facebook!

Login to Use StampAuctionNetwork.
New Member? Click "Register".

StampAuctionNetwork Extended Features
 
You are not logged in. Please Login so that we can determine your registration status with this firm. If you have never registered, please register by pressing the [Quick Signup (New to StampAuctionNetwork)] button. Then Login. Listen to Live Audio!
 
logo

WESTERN EXPANSION continued...

THE CIVIL WAR continued...
Lot Symbol CatNo. Lot Description CV or Estimate
861   [Second Bull Run] Our men were pursued by all the engines of death that a rebel horde could invent. Outstanding content soldiers letter, by Sgt. T. F. Powers, On Picket on the Bank of the Potomac Near Sheperdstown, September 27, 1862. In[Second Bull Run] "Our men were pursued by all the engines of death that a rebel horde could invent." Outstanding content soldier's letter, by Sgt. T. F. Powers, "On Picket on the Bank of the Potomac Near Sheperdstown," September 27, 1862. In a closely-written letter in pencil on a patriotic sheet depicting the "Great Naval Engagement off Fort Wright," Powers writes a friend in Michigan that on August 29,"Gen. Pope says he ordered Gen. Porter to attack the rebs. No attack was made - for what reason I know not...About 2 A.M. next morning we came to the 'right about' and marched back towards Bull run, arriving...about 9.30. Here a beautiful Sight met our view. The hills covered with artillery which glittered in the clear sunlight, while along their sides and in the valleys bayonets almost innumerable glistened. Every face wore a smile of confidence...About 2 P.M. ordered to advance." His unit moves into woods full of the dead from both sides before emerging in an open field. "Here the scene became appaling, death in a thousand forms." They continue until they meet the enemy "and pitched in...A brigade ordered to our support came out of the woods...lay down, fired two volleys and turned their backs...We stood our ground firing...for about 1/2 hour, our men falling all round...Capt. Ransom, Lieuts. Raby & Chittick were killed...Anxiously we looked for support. None coming we were begged of to retreat, which was obeyed resuting in a grand skadaddle...Our men were pursued by all the engines of death that a rebel horde could invent. It was a regular 'Bull Run'...I started and made a clean run coming up as the reg. was trying to rally...When we formed we had 69 men left out of over three hundred...We were indeed a badly whipped crowd." Soiled, but in choice condition. With original "Onward to Victory" patriotic envelope, reduced at right, postmarked at Washington "Sep 31 / DUE 3". General Pope's orders to General Porter were in fact contradictory, directing him to attack but to maintain contact with a support division that was nowhere near the point he was to attack. Also, James Longstreet had arrived to reinforce what Pope believed was still a weak point in enemy lines. The next day, Porter made the general attack Pope had ordered and was duly flanked by Longstreet (Sgt. Powers was among those at the most exposed point of this attack!), leading to the inevitable Union defeat. (imagea) (Image) Est. $400-500

SOLD for $1,350.00
Will close during Public Auction
862 c   In line of battle near Gettysburg P.A. July 21st 1863, dateline on portion of soldiers letter and orange cover to East Addison, Vermont with 3c Rose (65) tied by well struck blue double circle Gettysburg, Pa. dateless provisional postmark useIn line of battle near Gettysburg P.A. July 21st 1863, dateline on portion of soldier's letter and orange cover to East Addison, Vermont with 3c Rose (#65) tied by well struck blue double circle "Gettysburg, Pa." dateless provisional postmark used shortly after the battle at Gettysburg, cover reduced at left, fine. (Image) Est. $400-500

SOLD for $325.00
Will close during Public Auction
863   [Battles of Chattanooga] Great content Autograph Letter Signed “W.S. Rosecrans, 1 page, 4to, Cincinnati, December 1, 1863. He thanks Maj. Alexander Doull of Akron for sending him a clipping, adding that “The operations at Chattanooga are very[Battles of Chattanooga] Great content Autograph Letter Signed “W.S. Rosecrans," 1 page, 4to, Cincinnati, December 1, 1863. He thanks Maj. Alexander Doull of Akron for sending him a clipping, adding that “The operations at Chattanooga are very fine and highly gratifying. But with the equation of forces so greatly altered I shall be glad to know why our superiority did not admit of our pushing our victory to farther results and pursuing the flying enemy across the Oostenaula [sic, Osstanaula River] twelve miles beyond Dalton." Mounting traces on verso. Union forces under US Grant had routed Braxton Bragg’s army at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in late November, after which Bragg retreated to Dalton, Georgia. Rosecrans is not merely showing envy by criticizing a failure to follow up (He had failed in the same arena just three months earlier), for a rear-guard action by only 4100 Confederates under Patrick Cleburne held off 12,000 Union troops under Joseph Hooker, allowing Bragg to preserve his force. With a carte-de-visite Photograph of RosecransRosecrans, William F. - American Union general, diplomat, politician, and industrialist (1819-98); after victories at Corinth, Stones River, and in the Tullahoma Campaign, he was elevated to command the Union armies in the west, but his mismanagement at Chickamauga led to a severe defeat and near-disaster, after which he was removed from command. (imagea) (Image) Est. $400-500

SOLD for $475.00
Will close during Public Auction
864   [Road to Appomattox - Beard Correspondence] “The Glorious finale of our wearisome marching” The letters of soldier Ezra H. Beard of Jefferson, NY, a farmer who enlists in the summer of 1864. A good group of 66 autograph letters and one typewritte[Road to Appomattox - Beard Correspondence] “The Glorious finale of our wearisome marching” The letters of soldier Ezra H. Beard of Jefferson, NY, a farmer who enlists in the summer of 1864. A good group of 66 autograph letters and one typewritten letter, 1859-1918 (all but 6 of them from 1864-65). Beard enlists in the 91st Infantry as heavy artillery (later changed to heavy infantry) and immediately becomes ill; but before long he is mustered and sent to the Virginia theater of war. Inspired while visiting the ruins of the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in October 1864, "and other places of John Brown notarity…I wondered if the misery that has fallen & the destruction that has visited on this place was a judgment that has visited upon Harpers ferry for the crime…of putting down with bloody hands a patriot who nobly struggled for the advancement of the nation & the cause of humanity…”Burns helps get out the vote for Lincoln that fall. After several letters full of great content about military events, he is at last out of the hospital and back with his comrades, guarding prisoners of war. In March 1865 his regiment is relieved and he is sent to the front, near Hatcher's Run, where the Union had extended its lines around Petersburg in February. Finally, on March 26, he writes that "The ball commenced yesterday about 2 or 3 oclock in the morning; with heavy cannonading on our right & right center.” But in the Battle of Ft. Stedman, a failed attempt by the Confederates to break through Union siege lines, he got "near enough to get a smell & see the shells burst – yet didn’t discharge a musket…” However, his regiment was reviewed by President Lincoln near the battlefield. The best letter of the group is written on April 14, on the Danville Road near Appomattox, explaining that on the May 31, they “at last found ourselves in a fight. We were in the third line of the battle and were hardly formed when the 1st and 2nd line came falling back through our ranks in wild disorder. We poured in a tremendous volley, but with no other effect than a moments check to the Rebs…We held our position 20 minutes after the first order was given [to retire] and then had to skedaddle, as they were on us, taking no prisoners, and Shooting us at short pistol range.”In the ensuing battle: "the man on my left was shot dead & the one on my right was wounded. David Reed was wounded in the arm. Van Huysen (both of these were my tentmates) was shot in the head. The enemy were beaten and we encamped on the battle ground." But before the night ended, they were sent in pursuit and flanked the enemy in turn, "capturing thousands, and taking their cannon. Oh it was glorious! The Skunks had made miles of breastworks, and we surprised them by coming in on the back side." Despite a lack of food, Beard exults because: "the glorious finale of our wearisome marching. Lee was flanked by the 85th corps, and the gaps he intended to pass through closed by Sheridan's bull-dogs. I feel that our glorious country is saved. I have a piece of the tree under which Lee surrendered." Another great missive decries the pomp of the Grand Review, where battle flags, "torn and rent, beaten colorless, by rain and Storm, and carryind the fearful marks of Shot and Shell … I heard the unconscious ravings of the expiring Soldier ... the dead Sickening thud of the bullet as it passed crashing through the brain of loved comrads. True the way was strewn with flowers; are there flowers scattered on the nameless graves that are thick as the green grass all over the bloody soil of Virginia."After the war, Beard goes west and settles in Iowa, the final letter containing his wishes on his sister’s 80th birthday. With one letter by a Confederate soldier, “Sol,” from Richmond, which Beard found near Appomattox and sent home. (Image) Est. $1,500-2,000

SOLD for $2,300.00
Will close during Public Auction
865   [Burns Archive] A once-in-a-lifetime Civil War collection of diaries, letters, photographs, documents, memorabilia, scrapbooks, and two cavalry swords!The collection includes twelve pocket diaries nearly 100 letters including several with hand-d[Burns Archive] A once-in-a-lifetime Civil War collection of diaries, letters, photographs, documents, memorabilia, scrapbooks, and two cavalry swords!The collection includes twelve pocket diaries; nearly 100 letters including several with hand-drawn maps, many with original stamped envelopes; an album of photographs and over 175 cartes-de-visites including many signed; over 100 postwar family letters and transcripts; two sabers, one carried by Burns and one Confederate sword captured at Selma; souvenirs including Gettysburg bookend , the Burn's library as well as a separate collection of materials related to his son's (Lt. Robert A. Burns) service in the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.Robert Burns of the 4th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry entered the service as a 1st lieutenant and mustered out as a major and a brevet lieutenant colonel. He served in the Army of the Cumberland from 1862, from November 16, 1864 as Acting Assistant Adjutant General of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Cavalry Corps and until the close of the war. He was personally involved in well over sixty battles and skirmishes. Among those in which he figured were Stone River, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign, including Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, Marietta, Atlanta and the follow-up operations in northern Georgia, Wilson's Raid on Selma, Alabama, and the pursuit and capture of Jefferson Davis. After the war Burns returned to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he married Annie Talman of Rochester, NY, and raised a family, keeping very active in veterans' groups until his death in 1891.A more detailed description, with more lengthy transcriptions, is available upon request as space permits only the following brief summary.The Diaries: An unparalleled group of twelve pocket diaries for the years 1856-57, 1860-67, and 1870-71, most of them well filled with neat, close writing, recounting the mundane and exciting events of Burns' life. A brief summary to give the flavor of the content follows. Two volumes recite his life as a real estate lawyer. In 1860 Robert attends the Republican National Convention in Chicago which is well described. On Election Day he votes a straight Republican ticket "from Lincoln & Hamlin down to coroner." In 1861 Burns gets directly involved in organizing a volunteer regiment. In July 1862, he and a friend receive permission to raise a company of cavalry, with Burns as its first lieutenant. He is called to Camp Minty (named for Robert Minty, who heads the regiment). His regiment, the 4th Michigan, is sent to Kentucky, where he records his first impressions of life in the cavalry.Later, his company is part of the force sent out to thwart raiders under Gen. John Hunt Morgan. Burns then recounts in exceptional detail his exploits, including scouting enemy positions, attempting to chase down guerrillas. On May 22, 1863 when the regiment raids an enemy camp, sneaking to it at night through woods: "where it was so dark that the only way to keep the trail was almost to lean forward and grasp the leading horse's tail…. we waited until it was light enough to see, and then started on the run. The 4th Regular and 4th Michigan got into the camp first and took about 70 prisoners. The enemy in force followed us for six or seven miles. The 4th Michigan captured the standard of the 1st Alabama Cavalry."Attacked at Lebanon in mid-June by John Morgan's raiders. Near Shelbyville on the 27th, Burns is part of a cavalry attack on rebel entrenchments: "I dismounted two of the butternuts [rebels] with my sabre and had my horse shot in the foreleg. … driving them over Duck River. … About 200 of the rebels were driven into the river and drowned. We took about 200 more prisoners."At the Battle of Chickamauga, he records that at about "1 P.M. we received orders from Genl. Rosecrans to return towards Chattanooga and watch our left flank. The battle was drifting rapidly to the left. Both armies appeared to be pushing toward Chattanooga sideways …. Stragglers and sneaks were in every corner."One of the most alarming entries is innocent enough. While in Nashville with Col. Robert Minty he goes "to the old Theatre where J. Wilkes Booth played Richard III very well. We were obliged to stand up during the whole performance." In the spring and summer, Burns takes part in the Atlanta Campaign, and his diaries provide detailed accounts of his part in skirmishes and battles, especially the actions around Macon on June 20 and at Lovejoy Station a month later; the latter is the longest diary entry - a full eight pages, plus a few hand-drawn diagrams of the battle. After Atlanta is captured, he rides into the city on September 5 and describes how the houses and shops in one section have been ravaged by Union shells.On April 2, 1865, he, with 77 officers and 1938 men, approaches Selma, Alabama. He finds it protected by the entrenched enemy: "We had an open field about half a mile wide to charge across. Our men went in with a cheer and a roar. The rebels received us with a withering fire. Many of our men fell killed but the living could not be stopped. They reached and broke through the stockades, waded the ditch and climbed over the embankments, killing and cutting down the rebs … We had had a glorious success." He would be brevetted to lieutenant colonel for this battle. In another exceptional passage, Burns, now in southern Georgia, gives a detailed account of the capture of Jefferson Davis, who had become a fugitive after the surrender of the Southern armies. He writes on May 12 of Lt. Col. Benjamin Pritchard, who led the men searching for Davis: "The 1st Wisconsin mistaking our men for rebels fired and before the mistake was discovered, Lieut. Boutell 4th Mich. was wounded & two men killed. While the firing was going on Mr. Davis came out of his tent dressed in one of Mrs. D's dresses and attempted to escape. Mrs. D. was with him and asked the guard 'to allow her poor old mother to pass to the spring, as she felt very faint.' Geo. Munger & Andrew Bee saw a pair of cavalry boots under the skirts of the ancient lady and refused to allow her (or him) to go out." After the war, there is celebration with old friends. In 1866, his mother dies, and he tips her photograph into his diary. In 1867 he and his old friend Miss Annie Talman decided to marry. The last diary, from 1871, is barely used but on October 17, 1873, he records that "Our little one Janet Mary at 3:00 A.M. came into the world." Also with a 4to composition book in which Burns has begun copying over diary entries relevant to his military service. However, he leaves off at November 28, 1862. The Civil War Letters: Nearly 100 letters, many with original stamped envelopes, all to either his mother or to his brother, Davidson, July 1862-April 1865. Burns is an unusually good writer, and he has much more to discuss than we can describe here. Letters from cavalry officers are naturally much less common than those from the far more numerous infantry. With typed transcripts of most letters. Also with a composition book with his manuscript copies of letters from July 1862 to June 1865 in effect a second and more compact collection of these letters!Battle of Murfreesboro: After some skirmishing on the way to Murfreesboro, he is in the battle proper on December 31-January 1, and writes on the 11th day of 1863 that his cavalry regiment was in advance of Gen. Thomas Crittenden's corps. On December 31, Burns and his fellows are chasing down enemy cavalry when they are approached by an orderly from Gen. Rosecrans, who said that a great battle was going on in their front. Afterward he views the battlefield: "Hundreds of the dead were lying scattered around yet unburied. It was a horrid sight. The most, if not all, of our soldiers had been stripped naked by the rebels almost all the unburied were our men tho' I saw a good many butternuts. Some of the trees were literally covered with ball holes from the ground to 25 feet high. I there saw enough of war. "By July 1863 he is in Huntsville, AL, where he is carrying out the president's Emancipation Proclamation. "Every able bodied negro, ever serviceable horse and mule is seized and confiscated. The darkies are obliged to go with us whether they wish it or not. What is to be done with them I can't tell ... The inhabitants are to learn what war is. Since the taking of Vicksburg I suppose Grant is loose to turn his attention to Mississippi and West Alabama."A month later he writes of the action at Shelbyville in which he was involved, including a map he has drawn of the enemy entrenchments: "For about a half mile in front of the pits the ground was perfectly clear, every tree cut down a dangerous place to go over when a reb was squinting over a rifle barrel." Burns joins a cavalry charge over the entrenchments.At Chickamauga in September, Burns, under Col. Minty, is at the extreme left of the line, with Genl. Crittenden in the center. Burns writes that: "The enemy's forces were twenty to our one, Longstreeets whole corps being in our front. … At 8, an incredibly musket battle begins, so thick that individual volleys cannot be identified …"From confused orders, they find themselves on the morning of Sept. 21 far in advance of Thomas' lines, fired on by both sides! As commanded, they waited for the enemy to push them back to their own lines, where they narrowly escape. In March 1864, he is back in Alabama. There are rumors that the dreaded Confederate cavalryman Nathan B. Forrest is on his way, but Burns is full of confidence. On May 26, he goes so far as to predict that Atlanta will be ours within ten days. There is some serious fighting the next month and days later they are at the foot of Kennesaw Mountain, ready for their next battle: "Kennesaw Mountain looms up before us …. Now they are at it. A brisk cannonading has commenced five or six miles from us. Boom! Boom! Boom!! They go at the rate of five a second" The real battle, the bloodiest of the campaign, would be fought on the 27th, when a vain attempt was made to dislodge Johnston's men. In July and August, Burns spends much of his time on dangerous raids under Genl. Judson Kilpatrick, whose daring but often careless forays earned him the nickname Kill Cavalry. The most interesting raid is recounted in another highly detailed letter, dated August 28, in which he includes a wonderful drawing of the action at Lovejoy Station, which is largely identical (but much larger) than the one in his diary from this time. Here he comments: "Down the hill we went, the rebels turning their batteries of canister and grape upon us, while the bullets whistled fiercely. We leaped fences, ditches, barricades, and were among them. Their skirmish line did not attempt to stand, and the men turned to run just before we reached them. It was too late. We did cut them down right and left. One soldier I struck full on the top of the head, felt my sabre sink in, saw him fall, and dashed on."After the capture of Atlanta, Burns was sent to Kentucky and then south into Georgia and Alabama as part of Wilson's raid in late March and early April. He writes in May of his major role in the sacking of Selma, Alabama, which had been guarded by Genl. Nathan Bedford Forrest. This battle is reported in detail. Here he adds on May 8-9 that: "We had captured 2300 prisoners, 26 pieces of artillery in the works, and about 70 in the arsenal. Forrest himself escaped with about 200 men. The day before yesterday we entered here, and as we were skirmishing we were met by a flag of truce, giving us information of the armistice. PEACE at last … The Confederacy is ours, and fairly won."On May 18, he adds that in his May 8-9 letter: "I broke off abruptly to start after the redoubtable Jeff Davis. I was not one of the fortunate 150 who caught the above named gentleman, but I have the pleasant knowledge that if he hadn't fallen into Pritchard's hands, we should have taken him."He continues to relate his actions after Selma, including the request put in by his superiors for him to receive a brevet (at the time he had reached the rank of major). Correspondence and articles regarding the Capture of Jefferson Davis: As assistant adjutant general to the 4th Michigan when it was given the task of hunting down the fugitive erstwhile president of the Confederacy. Burns, though he was not present at the capture on May 10, 1865, officially processed the prisoner when he was brought in from the field. A large group of postwar letters to and from Burns (including his own copies) concern different versions of the capture, specifically the question whether Lt. Julian Dickinson was about to let Davis, disguised as an elderly woman, fetch water (and surely escape) when his true identity was discovered by one of his men. With letters from Col. Robert Minty, Lt. Col. Benjamin Pritchard, and George Munger, and with a statement witnessed by Burns and his wife, and signed by Andrew Bee, the soldier who noticed that Davis was a man in disguise! All accounts seem to agree that Davis, contrary to some rumors that he was in a petticoat, had a woman's cloak thrown over himself, but was otherwise dressed in men's clothes.Photograph Albums: A deluxe oblong 8vo album with 70 Civil War cartes-de-visite, including images (those marked * are signed on verso) of Burns, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, Mrs. Douglas, Col. Elmer Ellsworth, Col. Claudius Grant*, Gen. Samuel Heintzelman, Gen. A.P. Hill (CSA), Gen. Joseph Hooker, Gen. Philip Kearney, Gen. James McPherson, Gen. George Meade, Col. Moss (1st La Cavalry, Union), Maj. Horace Neide*, Gen Philip Sheridan (2), Gen. William F. Smith, Gen. David Stanley, Gen. James Steedman, Gen. George Thomas, Capt. Heber Thompson*, and two unidentified officers. Also with group images of the officers of the 8th Mass (including Col. Edward Hincks and Maj. Ben P. Poore) and an image of a Union steamer off Vicksburg.With a second and more impressive collection, tipped to explanatory sheets (easily removed) and set in a modern ring-bound folder. Includes cartes-de-visite, several signed, of Burns (2), Brig. Genl. John M. Brannan, Tom Henderson (black servant), Brig. Genl. L.F. Hubbard, Maj. Genl. Judson Kilpatrick, Brig. Genl. William J. Palmer, Maj. Genl. John F. Reynolds (2), Maj. Genl. W.S. Rosecrans, Pick (black servant), Col. Charles F. Taylor (with telegram announcing his death), Maj. Genl. George H. Thomas, Maj. Genl. James H. Wilson. Also with oblong cartes-de-visite of the 15th Pa. Cavalry at Chattanooga, March 1864 (two different poses); of the regiment's clerks, of the headquarters building of the Army of the Cumberland. With two outstanding 4.5 x 7.5 images, one of Gen. U.S. Grant smoking a cigar, facing a small group of officers and others on Lookout Mountain; and another of Gen. Joseph Hooker and his officers. Family Items: Over 110 pieces of postwar correspondence, 1873-91, the majority between Burns and his daughter Janet. These are among the most charming items in the lot, for Burns was plainly a doting father. Also present are pension documents, drawings by Burns's son, Archie, and two memorial flyers for Burns after his death in December 1891. With four Scrapbooks of clippings concerning the war, most from 1875 and later. Also enclosed are a number of delightful Original Drawings by their son Archie, who would die at age 16. Gettysburg Bookend: A most unusual souvenir of the Battle of Gettysburg, including a piece of grape shot, two bullets stuck into a piece of wood, a metal eagle (made from an insignia?), and a bayonet tip, all embedded in a book-shaped block of wood. With remnants of original label on back. This appears to be from not long after the battle.USA Cavalry Saber: An obviously battle-used curved saber, apparently neither the model 1840 (though the blade is 35, this is much lighter than old wristbreaker) nor the model 1860, but probably one purchased privately by Burns. The base of the blade has the marks B and S within shields, and the blade is lightly etched, with some engraved writing on the sword spine that is, alas, now illegible. With original scabbard. The quillon is slightly separated from the hilt at the pommel end, but this sword is still in exceptional condition.CSA Cavalry Saber: Captured at Selma! A battle-used curved saber, generally of the model 1860 type, with mark on the base of the blade of T. G & Co / N.O. The brass scabbard, which Burns may have provided, is engraved Captured by Major Robert Burns 4th Mich. Cavalry, at Selma, Alabama, April 2, 1865. The blade is a little tarnished, but overall the condition is remarkable for its age. Burns captured this during Gen. James H. Wilson's Raid into Alabama and Georgia, against Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had previously been thought invincible. Wilson and 13,500 troopers attacked the arsenal at Selma, which was defended by Forrest's much smaller force. Library: With several books from Burns's library, many of them collectible in their own right, but offered here as part of the collection; mixed condition. Includes several books apparently liberated from the Confederate owners (an example is: The Confederate States Almanac and Repository 1864. Burns's paper note on added free endpaper reads "Mr. Hairston's home / Near Kenesaw Mt. / June 20-22d 1864") as well as standard military books including Cavalry Tactics, 1861 (3 volumes); Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics, 1861. Also includes is a linen-backed, folding map of Northern Georgia by W.E. Merrill, Chief Topographical Engineer, Chattanooga, May 2, 1864, that was undoubtedly used by Union forces engaged either in the Atlanta Campaign or Wilson's Raid into Georgia and Alabama. Later volumes include: Minty and the Cavalry: A History of Cavalry Campaigns in the Western Armies, 1886, Extra illustrated by Burns with pages of his photographs, clippings and marginalia. World War I Archive of Lt. Robert A. Burns, United States Expeditionary Forces: (imagea) (imageb) (imagec) (imaged) (imagee) (imagef) (imageg) (imageh) (imagei) (imagej) (imagek) (imagel) (imagem) (imagen) (imageo) (Image) Est. $75,000-100,000

SOLD for $72,500.00
Will close during Public Auction
866   [Denver Correspondence] A group of 17 letters to and from the former California official, Governor of Kansas Territory, and US Indian Agent, covering his time as a Union officer through the later years of his life. Many are detailed political let[Denver Correspondence] A group of 17 letters to and from the former California official, Governor of Kansas Territory, and US Indian Agent, covering his time as a Union officer through the later years of his life. Many are detailed political letters, as Denver was one of the era's most prominent Democrats. In an interesting December 1860 letter from Senator Milton Latham (who had been Governor of California for five days until being chosen Senator), he affirms "I shall stand by the Union to the very last & I do hope Cal'a will remain firmly with what is left. The idea of a Pacific Republic I don't endorse. We want a Railroad, mails, &c."In October 1861, Denver writes his wife about John C. Fremont, the California "pathfinder" who was about to be replaced as commander of the Western Department by David Hunter. "There will be a horrible expose of Fremont's doings at St. Louis...He is determined to have not only the 'pomp and circumsance of war' but also the comforts of whiskey smashes...He is among men what comets are among the Heavenly bodies, making a great display, but no one can tell...what they are made of." As another has said, "he is a statesman who never made a speech, a general who never fought a battle, and a millionaire without a dollar he can call his own." With manuscript General Orders No. 2 for troops in Kansas, directing them to act against armed bands that had begun roaming the state as violence between it and Missouri continued. An old friend writes him in March 1863 that the war and its antecedent incidents have ruined the Democratic party, and "It seems as though the whole of humanity has become vilely corrupt, and I only hope that the present war may purge and purify us as a nation." Denver also writes his wife in May 28, describing the Grand Review of Grant's and Sherman's armies.After the war, Denver is, like most Democrats, anti-reconstruction. He writes in 1868 from Washington that he has visited Richmond, which he describes lovingly. He wishes that the old colonization societies had succeeded in repatriating former slaves to Africa, for former Confederates have lost their rights and "the ignorant negro was...exalted above them...All the best men of the country were excluded from public affairs and the ignorant negro was sent into the Capitol to make laws." (Image) Est. $2,000-3,000

SOLD for $3,250.00
Will close during Public Auction
867   [Bleeding Kansas - Denver Correspondence] A further archive (see previous lot and California section) of over twenty letters to and from James W. Denver, from his service as Commissioner of Indian Affairs and as Territorial Governor of Kansas. Th[Bleeding Kansas - Denver Correspondence] A further archive (see previous lot and California section) of over twenty letters to and from James W. Denver, from his service as Commissioner of Indian Affairs and as Territorial Governor of Kansas. The first, from October 1856, written on the blank pages of a Circular Letter printing the "Appeal of Kansas to the Voices of the Free States," is from C.D. Busby in Council City, KS, who reassures Denver that "Our settlement has not been disturbed yet by the border ruffians," though "We have suffered great inconvenience and some have even been without provisions on account of the difficulty in getting them from the river. One of my neighbors was robbed of his team wagon...by an officer in the service of the United States." The circular was written before the latest attacks, which "would disgrace the Devil himself...They thought they had things all right...to wipe us all out and their will is good enough if they had the power to kill every man woman & child belonging to the free state party...There is no doubt they will try it again...We expect...no permanent peace till we get a republican president. It is not the proslavery party in the territory that we have any fears of...but there are thousands in Missouri standing ready to help them, backed by all the power of the president. We have a new Governor just arrived, who makes a great many promises...But we can have but little confidence in any Man sent here by Frank Pierce...We look to the north for help in this our time of need."In January 1858, his old friend WHR Wood writes from Sacramento that "Your letter to Brigham Young was received with great eclat over here. Mr. Buchanan's policy relative to putting down insurrections and revolutions reminds me of the days of Washington [who had been lenient regarding the Whiskey Rebellion]. Indulgence to such characters only emboldens them to greater outrages. An active and energetic course...is the only way of crushing treason." This whole time folks continue to write Denver about political events in California, including one of his friends' attempts to get a US mail route. In May it is back to trouble between pro-slavery and free-state factions, this time from Jayhawkers on the Osage River, who have driven off over 40 families near West Point on the Missouri/Kansas border, though they have also frightened away some free-staters. "They amount to from 100 to 150 men and are all well armed and mounted. They are sympathetic with the Free State men...The whole Pro-Slavery party are frightened to death and the wildest reports are circulated - this by both sides."From JP Jones at Fort Scott, he learns later that month that James "Montgomery (the Marauder) with about thirty mounted and armed men" was at the Marais des Cygnes River, "threatening to fight the troops and frightening the pro-slavery settlers...On Wednesday morning last Capt. Woods...sent back a detachment of dragoons...to escort Coblett's train through the country...to prevent them from stampeding the animals...I met probably twenty of Montgomery's band...They seemed to be somewhat alarmed, from an attack from Capt. Hamilton with a party of citizens who had been robbed and driven out by Montgomery's party...Several intelligent citizens of Fort Scott (pro Slavery)...have told me that there are a sufficient number of good men here to defend themselves." He adds that Montgomery uses the slavery issue as a pretext to get the support of free-state Kansans. He, like Smith, thinks that panic has caused things to be exaggerated, and that the locals can handle themselves if they keep their heads. When the worst violence erupted, it was not caused by Montgomery. Charles Hamilton, a pro-slavery Missourian, traveled to the village of Trading Post and captured eleven men. He marched them into a ravine and his men shot them, killing five. By December 18, George A. Crawford writes from Ft. Scott that: "Our merchants are packing up their goods and taking them to the States...Our town is no longer a 'city of refuge'...All business has stopped...Early this fall Montgomery and his men began to apprehend that they might be indicted...The Grand Jury...contained but one pro-slavery man...Montgomery and some of his men were indicted; as were also Hamilton and others of the other side...for the murder on Marias des Cygnes." When locals banded together under a proclamation by Denver that grand juries would be respected and properly empowered, Montgomery and his men made an armed assault and freed one of their men who had been arrested for murder. "On the morning of the 16th inst. our citizens awoke one by one and were taken prisoners...if they appeared upon the streets...Meanwhile the main body...took posession of the 'Free State Hotel'...They fired on several of our townsmen...But the house of Dr. Little, adjoining the Hotel was the scene of most interest." Crawford and some others were staying there when they heard that armed men were in the streets. "We jumped into our clothes as fast as possible and seized our guns." One of his comrades is shot in the forehead and Montgomery's men surround the house, threatening to burn it and fire into it. "Just as they were ready to fire some of the ladies of town raised the cry that there were women and children in the building. They gave time to take them out." Crawford was able to talk them out of killing him and the others, but they were still robbed of everything they had.Montgomery and the others "talked as if 'war had begun' and that when the pro-slavery men and 'doughfaces' shall be driven out of Missouri must be taught a lesson...From all I have seen and heard I have come to the conclusion that the 'Danite' organization is an institution of Kansas and that they are sworn to drive out pro-slavery man...till they have thoroughly abolitionized the Territory...These men are but the instruments of leading men elsewhere whose object it is to involve Missouri & stir up civil war. I thought this of the pro-slavery bandits, Clarke, Brockett & Co...and I think it too of these 'free state' bandits...If the Gov. leaves us to our fate we will do the best we can...The Republican portion of the free-state men...have too much sympathy with the Montgomery movement...'Old John Brown' of Ossawattamie memory - Gerritt Smith's and Parson [Henry Ward] Beecher's dear friend - is in the field. His Company was by far the worst of any that were here." (In the incident at Osawatomie, Kansas, Brown and his men were attacked; this was in retalitation for his own earlier raid on Pottawatomie Creek, itself a response to the sacking of Lawrence, KT. Gerritt Smith and Rev. Beecher were famous northern abolitionists who had helped arm free-state settlers against pro-slavery border ruffians from Missouri). By this time Denver had been succeeded as governor by Samuel Medary, who transmits the above letter with a plea for Denver to become actively involved. On the last day of the year, Medary relates that "there is a great hostility growing between Brown & Montgomery, especially since Brown's successful robbery & murder in Missouri." But he has gone to Washington. In January, Montgomery has turned himself in, but as one Democratic friend writes, the Republicans feel "Kansas must bleed until 1860, & it would appear that our party was anxious to keep it bleeding too." With much more detail and content than can be repeated here. (Image) Est. $7,500-10,000

SOLD for $5,250.00
Will close during Public Auction
868   Douglas Diaries 1861-65, A fine group of four diaries for the years 1861-65 by Charles Douglas, a telegraph operator for the Union army. Two are book format and two wallet-style, all about 12mo. One covers the end of 1861 and all of 1862 and theDouglas Diaries 1861-65, A fine group of four diaries for the years 1861-65 by Charles Douglas, a telegraph operator for the Union army. Two are book format and two wallet-style, all about 12mo. One covers the end of 1861 and all of 1862 and the rest are for 1863, 1864, and 1865 respectively. Though Douglas is not directly involved in combat, he leaves impressions of some Union leaders, and there are many entries with news from the front, and even some excitement when he is captured! 5/9/1862 - Catlett Station, VA. "Rumored that the Rebels will attempt to take Wash'n, and by what I hear over the line in Washn, they seem to think that things look dark. 8/9 - Warrenton Junction, VA. Fighting going on quite briskly beyond Culpepper a few mile. 8/11 - Fight still progressing. Our folks will have to fight to win the day. Engineers & Conductors report that it is awful to see the number of wounded. They suspended hostilities today for a while to allow each other to bury their dead. 8/19 - Our army fell back from Culpepper today."6/11/1863 - Camp near Poolesville, MD. A Co. of Mich. Cavalry stationed at Seneca Road had been attacked by about 200 rebel Cavy at day break this morning. 4 of our men were killed. The Cavalry reported that the rebels were coming this way & the brigade was out in line of battle for about 4 hours or more expecting them. …Good prospect for a fight at Winchester. 6/14 - Line cut between Martinsburg & Winchester last night. Skirmishing nearly all day close to Martinsburg. Our troops fell back...6/15 - About 10,000 rebels at Martinsburg. … Rebs surrounded him but he cut his way out. Rebels reported closing in on Harper's Ferry tonight. 6/21 - Heavy firing heard in the direction of Snickers Gap, commenced about 8 a.m. It's reported that (Gen. JEB) Stuart & (Gen. Alfred) Pleasanton are fighting over there...6/22 - Official report says that Pleasanton whipped Stuart yesterday, drove him from Snickers to Asby Gap. 8/16 - Last night, about half past eleven, a party of Confeds, numbering about 10 or 15, entered this place... I hid in a corn field nearby until the party left town. They took my watch, revolver, &c.Continuing great content with dates of: 7/30/1864 Near Petersburg; 1/25/1865 Annapolis Junction, MD; 3/27 - Genl. Sherman was on board .. he looked to me like a man, who if he makes up his mind to do a thing, is bound to go through with it; 4/10 - will push Joe Johnston to the death; 4/15 - Horrible news came this forenoon. Last night as the President was in a private box at a theatre a man fired at him with a pistol and the ball entered his head. The president fell senseless and breathed his last this morning. The man who shot him exclaimed 'Sic Temper Tyrannus' Virginia is now avenged' and brandishing a dagger appears to have got away without any trouble. At about the same time an Assassin (or Assassins) entered Secy Sewards room and stabbed him three times. They (or he) also stabbed Secy Sewards Son. It is thought that Secy Seward will recover but that his son will die of the wounds. It is thought that an assassin is on Gen. Sherman's track. God grant the would be assassin, may meet with the death he deserves & not succeed." This is but a small sample of the content. (imagea) (imageb) (Image) Est. $1,000-1,500

SOLD for $1,700.00
Will close during Public Auction
869   [Iowa Volunteers] A large group of over 50 letters, all to Governors Samuel Kirkwood or William Stone of Iowa, or to the states Adjutant General NB Baker, from soldiers, citizens, the War Department, officers in the field, etc., during the bloody years 1861-65. They concern provisions, the formation of new volunteer regiments, the release of prisoners of war, the promotion of deserving warriors, the unwarranted promotion of the undeserving, appointments to military and war-related positions, and the settling of real or perceived injustices. Clearly these officials were kept very busy (or their subordinates were) with every kind of request, whether vital or a mere nuisance. With some choice content, particularly regarding the Battle of Shiloh. With the Book: Iowa Colonels and Regiments... AA Stuart. Des Moines, Mills & Co, 1865. 8vo, ½ leather, marbled boards, gilt edges, gilt and banded spine. Est. $750-1,000

SOLD for $2,600.00
Will close during Public Auction
870   [Army of the Potomac, Charles Lamborn] Incomplete diary by Union soldier in the Virginia theater. A wallet-style diary by Lt. Charles Lamborn of Chester, PA, aide-de-camp of Genl. John F. Reynolds, which begins January 1, 1862, and consists initi[Army of the Potomac, Charles Lamborn] Incomplete diary by Union soldier in the Virginia theater. A wallet-style diary by Lt. Charles Lamborn of Chester, PA, aide-de-camp of Genl. John F. Reynolds, which begins January 1, 1862, and consists initially of a long essay recounting events leading up to that time (the raising of his regiment and their precarious travel through partly rebellious Maryland) and prospects for the future. Clearly an admirer of George B. McClellan, he pens, "The army requires a thorough organization...and our men made soldiers. This feeling pervades the whole Army of the Potomac...altho' the country is beginning to demand an advance at all hazzards, and to pick flaws in the plans of our military leaders."However, his narrative breaks off after he is named Reynolds' aide-de-camp, and does not pick up again until August 1862, when Reynolds, captured at the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek on June 27, is exchanged by the Confederates. Lamborn writes that Genl. George A. McCall, captured a few days after Reynolds, "I think will not again assume command. For the sake of the lives of our brave men, I sincerely hope not." Since Lamborn was an aide, he does not personally witness battle, and most of his news is about marching orders. The narrative breaks off for good just before the Second Battle of Bull Run, where Reynolds had his finest hour, leading a counterattack that likely saved the rest of the Union forces engaged. Declining command of the Army of the Potomac (because he could not be free of political interference) he would later be killed at Gettysburg. By that time, Lamborn was no longer on his staff and had become a lieutenant colonel of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry! With one youthful and two later printed photographs of Lamborn, and a few of his postwar personal effects and letters. Lamborn's granddaughter would marry the son of Col. Robert Burns (see his collection in previous lot). With a cased Photograph of Lamborn as a young man. (Image) Est. $1,500-2,000

SOLD for $850.00
Will close during Public Auction
871   [The Home Front: 1864-65] An interesting Diary for the year 1864 and most of 1865, by GCM Lockwood of Huntz Hollow, NY, who has been discharged from the army but re-enlists, gaining an appointment in the War Department. He is a staunch Union man:[The Home Front: 1864-65] An interesting Diary for the year 1864 and most of 1865, by GCM Lockwood of Huntz Hollow, NY, who has been discharged from the army but re-enlists, gaining an appointment in the War Department. He is a staunch Union man: "Shall America...and the asylum for the oppressed of all nations fall beneath the hand of Slavery! God forbig: Rather let every man be sacrificed." In early 1865 he travels to Washington and is present at many major events, such as the vote on the 13th amendment on January 31: "119 in the affirmative and 56 in the negative. As soon as the result was announced there arose a shout that made the old walls echo...That shout wwas the death knell of Slavery, the curse of our country." A visit to Congress by US Grant, February 11: "Lieut. Gen. Grant came on the floor...Members forgot their bills and debates and crowded around the brave little man...Grant is a short man with normal smooth hair cut short and whiskers close cropped. His characteristic tenacity of purpose is fully exposed in his face." Lincoln's second inauguration, March 4: "Just as the President took his place on the stand the rain ceased. The sun came out brightly...The inaugural address was very short - and was rec'd with shouts of applause...Johnson Vice Presd't elect made a fool of himself...In the evening I attended the service at the White House and shook Abe by the hand." The fall of Richmond, April 3: "The yard in front [of the War Dept.] was filled by a crowd...Andy Johnson made a telling speech...Stanton read the dispatches from the front. The whole population are wild with joy." On April 14 he hears of Abraham Lincoln's shooting and rushes to the scene. "The Presdt. had already been removed across the street from the Theatre to Mr. Peterson's house...I waited in the streets until nearly 2:00. Reports from the house say the Presdt. cannot live. All kind of rumors are afloat, one that Gen. Grant was assailed...Sec. Seward and sons...have been severly if not fatally injured. All agree in saying that J. Wilkes Booth is the assassin." And the next day: "Abraham Lincoln is dead!! As I awoke this morning the bells were tolling...I roamed about trying to hear additional particulars, every face I see bears a look of sorrow." He also witnesses the president's funeral and reports on the Grand Review. (Image) Est. $500-750

SOLD for $800.00
Will close during Public Auction
872   [Richards Correspondence, 1864-1865], A group of 24 letters, most by Union soldier Amasa K. Richards, who writes home to his wife, Mary, in South Plymouth, Minnesota, and then at Sturbridge, Massachusetts after she has gone to stay with relatives[Richards Correspondence, 1864-1865], A group of 24 letters, most by Union soldier Amasa K. Richards, who writes home to his wife, Mary, in South Plymouth, Minnesota, and then at Sturbridge, Massachusetts after she has gone to stay with relatives. Richards is sent Nashville, arriving on Oct. 10, 1864. While traveling some of the way by train, "we road on the out side of the cars to protect them from the gerlilers that are waching for an opotunety run the train of the track and burn it. We past cotton fields on the roat: the train stoped near one and I gut out and picked some. I will send you some of it." He has done so, and the 145-year-old cotton is present in this lot! He is ordered to South Tunnel, northeast of Nashville, to guard the Louisville and Nashville railroad, an important Union supply line. Before his arrival, "The geurillers came upon the place about three oclock killed five collard solders and wonded one cut the telagraph line burnt three or four hundred cords of wood and robded some of the citterzens." On Nov. 6, he reports that he has been hunting guerrillas, but his squads have not captured one.With Confederate General John Bell Hood moving toward Nashville, he and his comrades begin improving their fortifications, and Richards reports "There are almost daily captures of partisans, who represent that they belong to Forest's command [Nathan Bedford Forrest, the greatest partisan leader of the war]. About one week ago I was garding a bridge with 13 others about three miles from the stockade. A party Guerillas numbering about thirty men came upon the railroad within sight cut the telagraph wire and made the workmen toss up the tract and took the prisoners and marched them off about five miles and robed them."After the Battle of Nashville on Dec 15-16, he writes, "The rebels have been completely routed" and many guns and prisoners have been taken. On Feb. 7, 1865, he gives a rare glimpse of a surely under-reported crime: "Three of our men have been placed under an arrest and taken to Nashville to be tride by a cort Marchiel. There names are Willey Green and Malborn. They was arrested on the complaint of some black women." The rest of his letters deal with the difficulties of returning to civilian life in Minnesota. Additional letters are present from Matilda Clay, probably Mary's sister, her brothers Isaac Plimpton (two, from 1861 and 1862, with a patriotic poem) and Chester Plimpton, who writes from Sturbridge in 1862 to tell her of Isaacís death: "A soldier that was with him wrote father that he died like a true patriot. Was wounded directly under the heart the ball remained in him. Died July 4th at Malvern Hill hospital which place fell into rebel hands July 2d so he died a prisoner." With two Photographs, one of a man and woman in 1917 with a bucket of maple sap, and another, undated, identified on verso as A.K. Richards. The latter image, however, is probably too recent to be the Civil War soldier. (imagea) (Image) Est. $500-750

SOLD for $900.00
Will close during Public Auction
873   [Virginia Theater] The Civil War Scrapbook of Charles H. Safford, lieutenant and later captain of the 5th Michigan Cavalry, Army of the Potomac. Includes selected diary entries copied in his hand, from August 1862 to December 1864. Of one importa[Virginia Theater] The Civil War Scrapbook of Charles H. Safford, lieutenant and later captain of the 5th Michigan Cavalry, Army of the Potomac. Includes selected diary entries copied in his hand, from August 1862 to December 1864. Of one important action near Gettysburg, he writes, "When we captured the Rebel trains at Monterey, night of July 4, prisoners were so numerous that I was halted as one twice...This was a night indescribable, cavalry & artillery, all in confusion, with rain pouring down, all crowded into the narrow mountain pass. Daylight was never more welcome."May 9, 1864, just after the Battle of the Wilderness, "The cavalry corps cuts loose from the army in the Wilderness, marching on the Telegraph Road south...We move rapidly all day, leaving Lee's army behind us...We ford North Anna River, some time after dark & soon strike the Virginia Central Railroad at Beaver Dam Station, Lee's base of supplies." This was part of Genl. Philip Sheridan's great cavalry strike into Virginia, and on the 11th (though Safford is not aware at the time), will cause the death of Confederate cavalry commander JEB Stuart at Yellow Tavern. Genl. George A. Custer is Safford's superior and impresses him greatly. With many interesting entries, and dozens of clippings and other items tipped in, it makes a choice memoir of the war. (Image) Est. $300-400

SOLD for $5,500.00
Will close during Public Auction
874   [From Vicksburg to Atlanta to Savannah to Raleigh, Shibly Correspondence] Large and content-filled collection of over 130 letters, the large majority by Oliver Shibly of the 31st Iowa Volunteers, to his wife Mary, with a few from his brother Dow,[From Vicksburg to Atlanta to Savannah to Raleigh, Shibly Correspondence] Large and content-filled collection of over 130 letters, the large majority by Oliver Shibly of the 31st Iowa Volunteers, to his wife Mary, with a few from his brother Dow, other friends, or from Mary to Oliver. After the regiment is organized in the fall of 1862, he writes on January 4, 1863, probably about the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, "we made a charge on them but were repulsed with a heavy loss, killed wonded & taken prisoner between two & three thousand. It was a hard sight to see the dead and wounded. I never want to see the like again the most that were killed were shot through the head. The Illinois, 13, was all cut to peaces." Over the next few months, he moves up and down the Mississippi, guarding supply lines and taking part in the attempt to surround Vicksburg; finally the men settle into a siege in late May. On June 23, he writes with his usual prescience (but poor knowledge of troop strength) that he hears Robert E. Lee has invaded Pennsylvania with 8000 men. "If that is the case, this war is not agoing to end very soon." On July 3, he expresses the hope that his company will be discharged after they capture Vicksburg, & "the government will conscript those d'd coperhedds to fight the batels, to take the front, & the old soldiers in the rear to drive them at the point of the bayonet." Continuing the letter on the 4th, he adds, "Great and glorious newes this morning, Vixburg Surrendered this morning a bout 9 oclock."He marches toward eastern Tennessee, mainly guarding railroads, until the Battles for Chattanooga in November, where, "We have given Brag the worse licking ever he had. The Iowa 5 lost more than half their regiment. They made a charge & the 17 was to support them, when they came into the hottest of the fight they RUN & the 5 was left alone. They have about 100 men left. This is the third time they have RUNN when they were to support the 5.We lost the most of ours on lookout mountain. Our regiment was under heavy fire for eleven hours without being relieved."Shibly marches into Georgia with General William T. Sherman, and notes at Resaca that "Sherman means to get to Atlanta, as soon as Johnson does." At Dallas he reports, "The rebels made a charge yesterday all along our lines & they were repulsed with very heavy loss...When they advanced within two hundred yards we opened on them & they fell like grass before the sithe." Sherman was unable to break Johnston's lines at Kennesaw mountain, so he flanked him as he had so often done before, forcing Johnston to withdraw. At Roswell, Georgia on July 24, Shibly pens: "Day before yesterday they had a sharp fight (the Battle of Atlanta). They advanced on Decater six miles east of Atlanta whare they did not expect us, their foarce was not very strong & we soon cleaned them out, capturing some prisoners three engines & cars & the boys got lots of tobacco. Old Johnson must look out or he will not get away with a whole hide this time."He gets more news by the 29th, and tells that there was "bloody & desperate fighting, the enemy was repulsed with great slaughter. Our loss was heavy but the enemies was nearly three times as large.They lay so thick that a man could step from one to the other for a long distance without stepping on the ground..." Finally he can write on September 9, "Atlanta is ours." He writes on November 5 that: "It is supposed that we will go to Savannah." He next writes on December 17 from near that city, "Our loss on making the charge was about one hundred killed & wounded. The most of it was done by torpedoes which they had placed in the ground. They had them all over the fort so as to blow up our men. Sherman had the prisoners at work taking them up."The war is entering its final days by April 8: "We heard that Generel Lee was captured with twelve thousand prisoners & Richmond is ours." Ten days later, in Raleigh, he reports that "We are in camp now waitin for Jonson to surender." "Songs for the Heroes of Chickamauga and Mission Ridge". (imagea) (imageb) (Image) Est. $3,000-4,000

SOLD for $8,000.00
Will close during Public Auction
875   [Bayard Taylor Correspondence] A group of correspondence featuring 18 Autograph Letters Signed by popular 19th century travel author Bayard Taylor, 1862-78, the large majority to his sister, Emma Taylor Lamborn, who married Civil War veteran Char[Bayard Taylor Correspondence] A group of correspondence featuring 18 Autograph Letters Signed by popular 19th century travel author Bayard Taylor, 1862-78, the large majority to his sister, Emma Taylor Lamborn, who married Civil War veteran Charles Lamborn (see his diary above, lot 870). With several other letters to Taylor and to his sister or her husband. In a good 1867 letter from the Thuringian Forest in Germany, he celebrates the success of John Greenleaf Whittier's poetry collection The Tent on the Beach, which publisher J.T. Fields has said "has already sold 20,000 copies...I remember when his name was never mentioned without a sneer, except by the small Abolition clique." He also writes of Tennyson and other poets. He writes from St. Petersburg (while secretary of the legation to Imperial Russia), New York (from the offices of the Tribune, Gotha, Sweden, and Pennsylvania. Included is a photograph of his sister in her old age in 1909. Interestingly, Charles and Emma Lamborn's daughter, Charlotte, married W.F. Peet, and their daughter married Robert A. Burns, son of the Michigan cavalryman (lot 865). A fine lot that should be seen. (imagea) (Image) Est. $750-1,000

SOLD for $2,700.00
Will close during Public Auction
876   [Ft. Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, TylerParker Correspondence] Interesting group of 22 letters by Charles W. Tyler and John W. Parker, apparently cousins (they occasionally note having seen each other), who write home to their Tyler relative[Ft. Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, Tyler/Parker Correspondence] Interesting group of 22 letters by Charles W. Tyler and John W. Parker, apparently cousins (they occasionally note having seen each other), who write home to their Tyler relatives in Rockford, Illinois; features original drawings by Tyler of fortifications around Ft. Donelson and around Vicksburg. Both cousins are (initially) in the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, known as the Washburn Lead Mine regiment, mustered at Galena, where the letters begin. The first letter of note, written by Tyler on March 27, 1862, announces that, "We arrived at the Fort [Donelson] about two hours after the surrender and the fighting was all over, and the prisoners were scattered around in groups looking with amazement at Union soldiers...The fort takes in perhaps about 10 acres of ground. It is built on a hill commanding the river for two miles." He describes the fortifications, barracks, and guns, and says he went down to the battlefield where “guns, cartridge boxes, cap boxes bayonets & bayonet scabbards, swords, long bowie knifes, pistols, &c were scattered around” but he is already too weighted down to scavenge. He includes a wonderful Original Drawing on a 4.8" x 5.75" sheet torn from patriotic stationery, of the fort and surroundings. With a colorful “The War for the Union” illustrated patriotic envelope. The next gem is from April 23, 1862 from Pittsburg Landing, TN, discussing the Battle of Shiloh a few weeks earlier: “I hope it will not be me that will pass through two more such days as the 6th & 7th of April…The eyes of the whole North are turned anxiously this way and Pittsburg is a place destined to be long remembered...Here is simply a tolerably good place for boats to land...known...simply as Pittsburgh Landing, and that should be the name of the battle as the greatest ever fought on this continent...though out in the woods there is an old log church called Shiloh...[Confederate General PGT] Beauregard had his Head Quarters at the said church...Beauregard & Johnson [sic, Albert Sidney Johnston] attempted to surprise us, and drive us into the river before Gen. Buell arrived. In the first they were successful and the fault should all rest on Grant’s shoulders. But as for them driving us into the river the matter ended in our driving them off the field. But Grant should not have one atom of praise. Gen. [Don Carlos] Buell is the gentleman that showed the generalship ably," in addition to which Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut "has proved himself a man and in him we place the utmost confidence.”Tyler adds that if the Confederates left in confusion, the battle was a great victory, but if they were able to fortify at Corinth and maintain morale, “the greatest battle of the War instead of deciding anything will become mainly a success in regaining camps from which we had been driven by a surprise…We finally repulsed them, though with great slaughter...” In an information-packed letter written by Tyler from Grand Gulf, MS, he describes the scene at Vicksburg as he traveled to Grand Gulf from Memphis on May 16: "Arrived at Young's point at 8-1/2 P.M. This is opposite the mouth of the Yazoo River which is guarded by Gun Boats. The Vicksburg batteries, in fact the entire city and fortifications are in plain site from here though 5 miles away.We camped on low swampy ground. At night could see the camp fires and lights in town. Sunday 17th went down with two other boys horseback. On the point opposite Vicksburg could see people in the court House and squads on the breastworks with the naked eye. A deserter came in and said that Vicksburg was being evacuated." On the 19th, they left for Grand Gulf, and near New Carthage he saw "the wreck of the Gun Boat Indianola, and Joe Davis plantation a beautiful place. Said Joe is a brother to the world renowned Jeff Davis. Our band played a tune called Yankee Doodle as we passed."They receive news that Grant is gaining ground around Vicksburg, and Colonel Hall, to whom Charles Tyler is an orderly, is summoned there, but Tyler must stay behind to tend to his bags! With two Original Drawings on 8vo sheets, one of Grand Gulf and one of Vicksburg. Tyler writes from Memphis in August 1863 that,"magnificent steamer Ruth the finest boat on the river was burned to the waters edge a few nights since near to Columbus Ky" and $2.6 million in greenbacks to pay troops went up in smoke. The last letter is from August 31, 1863, in which Tyler explains that he declined an appointment to West Point because he is sick of soldiering! Also with a carte-de-visite Photograph identified by John Parker on verso as "Amasa Parker / my cousin." The image is of a young officer, but apparently not one of the Amasa J. Parkers who were prominent in New York. A fine group, with far more equally lively content than can be reported here. (imagea) (imageb) (Image) Est. $2,000-3,000

SOLD for $3,250.00
Will close during Public Auction
877   Civil War balance of 32 items including Sanitary and Christian Commission covers, a cover written while on board U.S. gunboat Wissahickon while off New Orleans in 1862, several soldier's letters and many illustrated letterheads including "Bombardment of Fort Sumter," two "Desperate Cavalry Charge at Battle near Springfield," "Great Naval Engagement off Fort Jackson," "Camp near Fort Lyon," "Fortress Monroe, Old Point Comfort and Hygeia Hotel," two "Fort McHenry, Baltimore" and more. Est. $1,000-1,500

SOLD for $3,250.00
Will close during Public Auction
878   [Exceptional balance lot of miscellany concerning the Civil War] Includes: a DS by William H . Seward as Secretary of State, approving a copy of an act for the relief of Solomon Wadsworth, April 13, 1865 (a day before he was brutally attacked)[Exceptional balance lot of miscellany concerning the Civil War] Includes: a DS by William H . Seward as Secretary of State, approving a copy of an act "for the relief of Solomon Wadsworth," April 13, 1865 (a day before he was brutally attacked); the Signature of Ulysses S. Grant (probably post-presidential, tipped to a carte-de-visite, with two other cartes-de-visite); a Signature of Genl. AE Burnside (as US Senator from RI); an ALS by John A. Rawlins "By order of Major Genl. U.S. Grant," directing the disposition of supply wagons in front of Vicksburg, June 1863; an ALS by Gen. James M. Phail (postwar); a hand-drawn map of a camp along the Potomac; a Union soldier's letter describing the capture of Ft. Donelson; effects document for a deceased Iowa private; description of the October 1863 election among Iowa soldiers in the Dakota Territory; a petition to the governor of Iowa by a community of Dunkards asserting their conscientious objection to military service but affirming their loyalty; a copy letter commending the Boomer Brigade's gallantry in an assault on Vicksburg; a copy letter from Brig. Genl. James A. Garfield, giving orders for a scouting foray into Rome, GA; a letter to the adjutant general of Iowa in regard to a shipment of arms; a request to Genl. Baker for amnesty toward a deserter in light of President Lincoln's proclamation; a telegram (in operator's hand) from Genl. PGT Beauregard to Genl. G.E. Pickett, from Petersburg to Weldon, April 1864, saying he will be there with two guns in the morning; a souvenir reprint of the famous Vicksburg wallpaper newspaper; a postwar letter from a soldier seeking a regular army appointment; a commemorative ribbon for an 1879 visit of US Grant to Chicago; three additional soldiers' wartime letters, with good content; finally, a postwar letter of thanks from former Judge Advocate General J. Holt to a supporter against the slanders of Jefferson Davis, with related pamphlet and numerous clippings; with a carte-de-visite photograph of Davis. Also with a beautiful memorial ribbon for TJ "Stonewall" Jackson, probably war-date. With Jackson at center in a violet wreath and (ironically) an American eagle at top. (imagea) (imageb) (Image) Est. $1,500-2,000

SOLD for $5,250.00
Will close during Public Auction
CONFEDERATE STATES
Lot Symbol CatNo. Lot Description CV or Estimate
879   Davis, Jefferson His Autograph Note Signed Jeffer: Davis Sec. of War on blank integral leaf of an April 18, 1854 letter to the War Department A.W. Bobbitt regarding the Report of Capt. [J.W.] Gunnison and Capt Morris, touching their SuDavis, Jefferson His Autograph Note Signed "Jeffer: Davis / Sec. of War" on blank integral leaf of an April 18, 1854 letter to the War Department A.W. Bobbitt regarding "the Report of Capt. [J.W.] Gunnison and Capt Morris, touching their Survey & command, with maps & other papers, as they could not be sent by mail." Though Bobbett did not expect to be paid for his efforts to get the survey papers to Washington, "in crossing the Severe River, I in order to save the maps & other papers...lost a Brace of Colts Eight inc Revolvers, which floated from my Saddle while attempting to keep the maps & other papers dry. as I have to return across the Plains, through an Indian Country," he requests that they be replaced. With a note by Quartermaster General Thomas Jesup referring the matter to Davis. Davis orders that "The Ordnance Dept. will furnish W. Babbitt with two pistols (Colts') to replace those unavoidably lost in public service" Nearly separated at hinge, but otherwise solid. (imagea) (Image) Est. $500-750

SOLD for $800.00
Will close during Public Auction
880 c   Confederate Advertising Cover, Charleston, S.C.Mar 25 mostly clear datestamp tying 5c Olive green, Stone A (1c) affixed over the indicia of obsolete 3c Red on buff Nesbitt entire used to Columbia, S.C., buggy illustrated corner card of LeonardConfederate Advertising Cover, Charleston, S.C./Mar 25 mostly clear datestamp tying 5c Olive green, Stone A (#1c) affixed over the indicia of obsolete 3c Red on buff Nesbitt entire used to Columbia, S.C., buggy illustrated corner card of Leonard Chaplin at upper left, fresh and choice very fine. (Image) Est. $1,000-1,500

SOLD for $3,250.00
Will close during Public Auction

Previous Page, Next Page or Return to Table of Contents

StampAuctionCentral and StampAuctionNetwork are
Copyright © 1994-2022 Droege Computing Services, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Mailing Address: 20 West Colony Place
Suite 120, Durham NC 27705
Back to Top of Page