Jun 27, 2024 - Sale 2675

Sale 2675 - Lot 87

Price Realized: $ 1,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Group of courtship letters by future Confederate General Richard Griffith. 14 Autograph Letters (39 total pages), most signed as "Rd. Griffth" or "R.G."; minimal to minor wear; one with envelope bearing Jackson postmark, another with slave-carried envelope "per Ephraim." Two others have similar notations on their address panels: "per Tom" and "per boy Harrison." Mississippi, 19 July 1847 to 8 December 1848
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Richard Griffith (1814-1862) was a native Philadelphian who relocated to Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1840. He served in the Mexican War, became active in Mississippi politics and the state militia, and became a friend of Jefferson Davis. He commanded a Confederate regiment from the start of the Civil War, soon became a brigadier general, and died at the Battle of Savage's Station in 1862. His portrait hangs today in the Mississippi Hall of Fame.

Griffith was twice married before the Mexican War, but both of his wives died young. These letters are from his courtship of Sarah "Sallie" Whitfield (1825-1902) of Meridian Springs, MS, who became his third wife. They were written after his return from Mexico, first from Vicksburg and then from the state treasurer's office in Jackson. The letters are about as racy as formal antebellum courtship letters get. Discussing a friend's wedding on 22 July 1847, he teases: "I am astonished you have forgotten what is done on such eventful occasions, and sincerely hope you may soon know again, from personal experience this time, how nuptials are consummated, providing the ceremony binds you to me." In the same letter, he considered re-enlisting for Mexico: "I am urgently solicited to take command of a mounted company now being raised here for a campaign in Mexico. Shall I do so, or not? The call from the men is unanimous (I am told)."

At least one letter mentions the future Confederate president, then serving in the United States Senate: "I must see Col. Davis before he starts from Washington City" (28 October 1847). In the same letter he refers to Mississippi as "my adopted state--the land that I love best in the Sunny South." On 5 December 1848, just a few days before their wedding, Griffith writes "Our marriage is being verry much talked of here, although generally ignorant of the time, as I have yet mentioned it to but two persons." His final 8 December letter is mostly concerned with last-minute invitations.

Richard and Sallie were married on 11 December 1848 and had four children together. The eldest, Jefferson Davis Griffith, was born in 1850.