Nov 18, 2008 - Sale 2163

Sale 2163 - Lot 87

Price Realized: $ 1,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
CAUGHT IN THE SACK OF ASHEVILLE (CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) 2 parole documents of Alexander Hamilton Polk. 2 sheets: Polk's parole certificate signed by W.J. Patterson, 9.5 x 7.5 inches, missing a blank section of paper. * Polk's manuscript copy of a letter from W.J. Palmer to J.G. Martin, 12 x 8 inches, condition excellent. Asheville, NC, 28 April 1865

Additional Details

These two documents tell the story of one of the last melancholy incidents of the Civil War. Alexander Hamilton Polk continued to serve in the Confederate army after his father's death. Weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Polk's unit was surrounded and captured in Asheville, NC, and surrendered under an armistice. The Union army was not generally taking prisoners at this late stage of the war, but generally issued passes such as this one, which asserts over the signature of Union captain W.J. Patterson that Polk "has given his word of honor that he will not take up arms against the United States Govt." Many Union troops then returned to Asheville on a looting expedition. This looting, done after a formal truce, was a great embarrassment to Union Gen. William J. Palmer of the U.S. Army. Later that day, in an effort toward reconciliation, he rescinded the paroles in a letter to Polk's commander Gen. J.G. Martin, which in effect freed all of the Confederates captured in Asheville as the war came to a close.