Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 82

Price Realized: $ 344
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
"HURRY, HURRY, HURRY." (CIVIL WAR.) Fitz-John Porter. Letter as a junior officer urging the immediate defense of Baltimore. Autograph Letter Signed to General George C. Wynkoop of the Pennsylvania Militia. One page, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, with docketing on verso; folds, wrinkling, minor wear. [Baltimore, MD?], 23 April 1861
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This letter dates from very early in the war, just ten days after Fort Sumter, when Porter was serving as assistant adjutant general for the Department of Pennsylvania. Here he writes on behalf of the Union army to a Pennsylvania militia officer, urging his immediate presence--presumably in Baltimore, where Wynkoop's troops and other units soon arrived to prevent disturbances.

"Please hasten the movement of your command and push on board the cars immediately. This is of the utmost importance that you get off immediately. I will join you at the depot. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Your obt., F.J. Porter, A.A.G."

Porter later became a Major General, was court-martialed after his controversial role at Second Bull Run, but was exonerated in 1886.