Sep 26, 2019 - Sale 2517

Sale 2517 - Lot 51

Price Realized: $ 1,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Group of correspondence of the Western Lunatic Asylum in Virginia. 3 items, various sizes and conditions. Vp, 1862-63
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Additional Details

Western Lunatic Asylum had been founded in the Shenandoah Valley town of Staunton, VA in 1828. They continued in operation through the war, which would probably serve as the basis for an interesting film. The institution survives today as Western State Hospital, while some of the original buildings are now used as condominiums. This lot includes three letters which offer an interesting glimpse of mental health care in the Confederacy.
Thomas G. Bowen, letter to Dr. Stribling of the Western Lunatic Asylum in Staunton, VA, with postmarked address panel on verso. "I have a brother now at my house from the county of Fauquier who was on his way to your place to see young Wellington Millon, one of the inmates of your hospital. . . . On getting the Charlottesville, heard that he was dead & has decided to go no farther, but begs that you will inform him through me the particulars of his death if it be so. . . . My brother as well as young Millon is from the inside lines of the enemy, and it is very rare that an opportunity presents itself of getting communications through the lines." Wellington Millon was a sergeant with the 4th Virginia Infantry; he apparently survived the war. Greenwood Depot, VA, 17 January 1863 Mildred A. Moore, letter to Dr. Stribling in Staunton: "Not having heard for some time from my daughter Louisa Pucket, who is in the asylum at Staunton, must again ask you to have the kindness to inform me how she is doing." Lebanon, VA, 3 December 1862 Partly-printed Letter Signed from the Western Lunatic Asylum (altered to "Central Lunatic Asylum") to A.W. Womack of Pittsylvania Court House, VA, with bill for care of patient L.W. Womack; postmarked pair of Confederate stamps on address panel. Staunton, VA, 20 October 1863. with--Postal cover without contents addressed to "The Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum at Williamsburg, Va.," postmarked Pittsylvania, VA, with inked "5 paid" stamp and dated 27 June 1861.