?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(CIVIL WAR--MARYLAND.) George P. Kane. Letter by Baltimore's police chief, thwarting Union troops the day after the Baltimore Riot. Autograph Letter Signed "Geo P. Kane" as Marshal of Police, on his official letterhead, to Major Archer of Harford County. 2 pages, 9 x 5 1/4 inches, plus integral blank; short separations at folds. Baltimore, MD, 20 April 1861
George Proctor Kane (1817-1878) was a vocal southern sympathizer who was appointed Baltimore's Marshal of Police in 1860. He had his policemen do their best to protect Union troops during the Baltimore Riot of 19 April 1861, but in reaction to civilian deaths at the hands of Union troops, began almost immediately organizing resistance to the troops. This letter, written the day after the riot, requests a sympathizer north of Baltimore to seize a boat in order to help thwart the Union mobilization. In full:
"I learn that the steam ferry boat used to cross the Susquehannah River at Havre de Grace is likely to be used to carry troops through this state. I have therefore to request that you will take immediate and efficient steps to seize her & put her under such a guard as will secure her being brought to this city. I should prefer that this thing should be accomplished without injury to the boat, but as the object is to break up the connection with Pennsylvania, I wish it done at all hazards. I am requested by the governor of Maryland to destroy the bridges on the Baltimore, Philad'a & Wilmington & also on the Northern Central Rail Road for the purpose above alluded to, and to secure the accomplishment of that object I think it could be well to destroy the principal bridges below the Susquehanna & the Delaware line."
With--16th-plate tintype portrait of Kane, 1 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches, in contemporary case; lacking top cover, spotting in upper left. Contemporary copy print of a well-known image.
Provenance: collection of Arthur G. "Gil" Barrett.
