?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Robert E. Lee. Circular letter pleading for bread and meat from the local farmers; with a transmittal letter. Letterpress circular letter, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, addressed "To the farmers East of the Blue Ridge and south of James River," signed in type, printed on lined "necessity paper"; folds, one word corrected in manuscript, light toning. Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, 12 January 1865
Faced with a supply crisis, General Lee appeals to the patriotism of loyal Confederates in the Virginia countryside to feed his troops: "The recent heavy freshet having destroyed a portion of the Rail-Road from Danville to Greensbro and thereby cut off temporarily necessary Supplies for the Army of Northern Virginia, an Appeal is respectfully made to the Farmers, Millers, and other Citizens, to furnish with all possible promptness, whatever Breadstuffs, Meat (Fresh or Salt) and Molasses they can spare. . . . Arrangements have been made to pay promptly for all Supplies delivered under this Appeal." Parrish & Willingham 1221. One in OCLC (Virginia Historical Society); none traced at auction.
The printed letter is accompanied by a manuscript cover letter addressed from Capt. George Chamberlain to local farmer P.J. Fowlkes, dated the following day in Burkeville, VA: "I enclose you a receipt for the corn received this morning. I also enclose you a copy of Gen'l Lee's circular. Will you do me the favor to show it to any of your neighbors that you may see, and ask everyone to assist us in this great emergency, and send in to me any corn, wheat, meat &c than can be spared."
