Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 170

Price Realized: $ 2,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CIVIL WAR.) L.W. Manning. Letter describing Lincoln's carriage arriving in newly occupied Richmond. Autograph Letter Signed to his wife. 4 pages, 8 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet of toned Rebel "necessity paper"; folds, minor dampstaining. Richmond, VA, 5 April 1865
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Lloyd Willis Manning (1837-1883) was a private in Company I of the 3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, which specialized in building pontoon bridges. His company arrived in the rebel capitol just two days after Union troops took possession: "We arrived here at half past nine, within a short distance of the Rebel capitol. . . . President Lincoln went up ahead of us. His carriage is here at the wharf, and he is up to Old Jeff's House. . . . You have no idea how the colored people welcome the Yanks. Lincoln has just gone down the river on a small boat. More than five hundred women and children have come flocking down here to the wharf to see him." Manning also describes evidence of the chaos which enveloped the city during the rebel evacuation: "I am told by the cittizens that while the fight was going on at Petersburg, Gen. Lee telegraphed to Jeff that Grant had broken their lines and that they must evacuate R immediately, so there was no time to take off their big guns. He told them to take what stores they could, and throw the doors open and let the poor have the rest. . . . They say that Jeff was here Sunday morning but went off in a special train. . . . These bridges that they burned was ordered to be burned by Gen. Ewel. He said burn them if it burned the whole citty, and it was in great danger. The poor people are suffering for food. A horse cost three thousand dollars here in their money."