Nov 17, 2016 - Sale 2432

Sale 2432 - Lot 119

Price Realized: $ 390
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(CIVIL WAR--IOWA.) Hoskins, J.C.C. Letter describing a visit to Iowa soldiers in the Dakota Territory on the western frontier. Autograph Letter Signed to James Wright, Secretary of State of Iowa. 3 pages, 10 x 7 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet, with docketing on final blank leaf; faint stain in upper margin of first page, minimal wear. Sioux City, IA, 26 October 1863
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John Church Cushing Hoskins (1820-1909) was a pioneer of Sioux City, Iowa. In 1863, he was appointed as a commissioner to collect the election returns for Iowa soldiers on the western frontier, including members of the 6th and 7th United States Cavalry regiments. This was somewhat more perilous than the typical work of an election official: "The soldiers were scattered in small detachments all the way up to Fort Pierre, 350 miles from this place, and most of them on the march for this place through a country which is mostly a wilderness infested by roving squads of Indians more hostile & dangerous than ever since Sully's great battle. There was no safety in moving outside of camp anywhere except as protected by an escort, which could not always be procured." General Alfred Sully's victory against the Dakota Sioux in the Battle of Whitestone Hill had taken place the previous month.