Mar 10, 2020 - Sale 2533

Sale 2533 - Lot 54

Price Realized: $ 1,188
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
"THE SOUTH IS BOUND TO HAVE HER OWN WAY, OR DIE IN THE ATTEMPT" (CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Letter describing the mood in Charleston on the eve of secession. Autograph Letter Signed "E.G.D." to friend Charley. 3 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet; minor foxing and wear. Charleston, SC, 16 November 1860

Additional Details

The week before this letter was written, South Carolina's General Assembly had declared the election of Abraham Lincoln a hostile act and called for a convention to discuss secession. "It is all secession here, live or die. The Lone Star flags wave in every direction, secession meetings every night, the largest halls in the city crowded. Every man, woman, & child is for secession. . . . The state of S.C. has appropriated $400,000 to arm the state, and Col. Sam Colt's brother is here getting orders. . . . They have raised a large liberty pole today in front of the Charleston Hotel and they are going to fire 15 guns under it tomorrow, and have stump speeches on a pile of ten bales of cotton. . . . The south is bound to have her own way, or die in the attempt." The author was possibly Edward G. Dill (1836-1880), a South Carolina newspaperman; he survived the war and later moved to New Orleans.