(CIVIL WAR CONFEDERATE) [Lawley Francis] Pair of dispatches

Sale 2287 - Lot 168

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Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) [Lawley, Francis.] Pair of dispatches from the London Times "Anglo-Rebel" correspondent in Richmond. The first item: 6 leaves of 4to ink-press copies cut from a volume and one double-sided manuscript leaf, unsigned; the second, 4 12mo pages on one sheet. Richmond, VA, 14 and 22 June 1864

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Francis Lawley (1825-1901) was the Confederate correspondent for the London Times. After a brief sojourn in the north, he slipped back south by blockade runner on 5 June 1864. The first dispatch in this lot is dated 14 June and headed "From our special correspondent." It offers a very sympathetic, positive perspective on Confederate affairs, and describes with evident relish the great casualties inflicted on Union troops at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. It concludes with a tribute to the Confederate military leader, anticipating when "the name of Robert Lee . . . will become to his country a possession which she will cherish & value as she cherishes & rejoices in her newborn & hardly-acquired freedom." This dispatch was published, with some editing, in the London Times, and then re-crossed the Atlantic to be reprinted in the New York Times on 8 August under the headline "Affairs South: An Anglo-Rebel View."
The second item is a personal letter addressed to a friend in England and is signed "FL." It covers much of the same ground as the earlier dispatch, including the account of Spotsylvania, and parts of it may have been also intended for publication. See Beckett, The War Correspondents, pages 66, 136.