?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(CIVIL WAR.) Saunders, William J.; for William H.C. Whiting. Whiting's order, captured at the start of the Battle of Fort Fisher. Autograph Note Signed in pencil, 10 x 8 inches, minor wear, small tape remnant. [Confederate Point near Fort Fisher, NC, 25 December 1864]
The capture of this dispatch was an important incident in the first Battle of Fort Fisher, which protected Wilmington, NC, and was then the most important Confederate fort still standing on the Atlantic coast. While the naval bombardment of the fort had begun, the Confederates did not realize that an advance scouting party from the 142nd New York Infantry had snuck within a few feet of the fort. The fort's commander, Brig. Gen. William H.C. Whiting (1824-1865), had his chief of artillery Major Saunders issue this order: "Officer in charge of Capt Adams' caissons & limbers will instantly bring them into the fort and take position where the guns are. Come at a gallop." The order was given to a private named Amos Jones for delivery. Jones was shot almost as soon as he left the fort. The dispatch was taken from his bag, and his captured horse was ridden back to the Union lines. The story is recounted in Fonvielle's Wilmington Campaign, page 157, and Gragg's Confederate Goliath, page 87. with--a related pencil note identifying the Union soldier who captured the dispatch, and another hero from the battle.
