Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646

Sale 2646 - Lot 88

Price Realized: $ 2,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Mann Page. Letters of a Virginia sergeant in Jackson's division, discussing battles and his servant. 11 Autograph Letters Signed, most to uncle D.C. Randolph; generally minor wear. Various places 1861-1864
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Additional Details

Mann Page (1831-1904) was a member of one of Virginia's leading extended families. His grandfather Isham Randolph had been a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson. Early in the war he enlisted as a sergeant major in the 21st Virginia Infantry. These letters were written to his uncle David Coupland Randolph (1804-1886).

In the first letter in the lot, dated 10 November 1861, Page notes that he has asked a friend "to make me a uniform (Ric'd Grays) if he has the gray cloth. . . . My present one is out behind & before."

His 28 June 1862 letter is the only wardate letter not addressed to Uncle D.C. Randolph, but rather a Mrs. Mosby. Oddly enough, it is written on a piece of patriotic Union letterhead, though his 21st Virgina address in "Jackson's Division" leaves no doubt that he was in Confederate service. The letterhead was perhaps picked up on the battlefield during the recent Battle of Gaines Mills, in which Page was "exposed to the enemy's shells late in the evening. . . . Should the worst happen, tell my uncle to place me on that little island in Hollywood. . . . Fighting is nothing new with Jackson's army."

Several letters mention Page's enslaved servant William, who was at the front with him, and often responsible for delivering letters back and forth to home. On 10 October 1862, he writes "William wishes to go home for a short while, and as he is my good servant, I have no objection." However, on 13 January 1863, "I gave William a lecture about charging Aunt Fanny for bringing up the package. I think that I have spoiled William by being too liberal to him."

His 16 May 1863 letter was written ten days after the Battle of Chancellorsville: "After a battle like this, there is more than the usual amount of work for an inspector to do, it being the business of inspectors to see that all property is collected, the dead buried, the wounded taken to the hospitals, to secure all prisoners of war." His 13 October 1864 letter is written from General Early's headquarters, and announces "I got to Rich[mon]d night before last on my way to Gen'l Lee with dispatches."

With--11 related items: 8 letters and accounts relating to Page, many relating to the sale and hire of "Mann Page's negroes" in 1856, plus letters dated 1862 and 1870; and 3 letters from Dr. Robert C. Randolph of Millwood, VA to D.C. Randolph, 1872-1884.