Jun 05, 2008 - Sale 2148

Sale 2148 - Lot 104

Price Realized: $ 1,080
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
BLUE-GRAY CORRESPONDENCE (CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE--GEORGIA.) Archive of letters to a New Englander serving in the Confederate army. Ten letters dated 1864: five received by George Augustus Gordon (1827-1912) as assistant quartermaster of a Georgia regiment; three to Gordon from his brother in Worcester, Mass.; and two to Gordon's wife from his business partner and fellow ex-Yankee Amory Dexter. Condition generally good. Vp, 1864

Additional Details

Gordon was a native of Dover, NH, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1846, and took over a gold mine at Dahlonega, Georgia in 1860. When the war broke out, he remained in Georgia and was eventually commissioned as an officer and assistant quartermaster of the 1st Georgia Infantry. One letter gives Gordon detailed instructions on how to send a personal letter across enemy lines to the North. Another letter offers an endorsement of a slave named "Boy John" as trustworthy. The letters from his brother make almost no reference to the war (as required by censors), but in one letter he slyly hopes to "find you well through the politeness of Gen. Butler." with--a Confederate military pass issued to Gordon in 1863; and a group of more than 60 letters written to and from Gordon by family members, Dartmouth College classmates including theologians Charles Augustus Aiken and Alonzo Hall Quint, and other friends, 1840-1859.