Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 108

Price Realized: $ 845
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL WAR--MARYLAND.) Letters to a Baltimore woman from Stanton, Wool, and a general's wife regarding her secessionist husband and son. 3 letters, various sizes, condition strong. Vp, 1862-63
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Additional Details

These letters were addressed to Annie Campbell Gordon Thomas (1819-1886), wife of Maryland legislator and secessionist John Hanson Thomas (1813-1881). Mr. Thomas was arrested in September 1861 for his ardent pro-Southern views, and apparently one of her sons joined the Confederate army, leaving Annie to negotiate with Union leadership--a task she seemed to have great success with. These letters include:
John E. Wool. Autograph Letter Signed as Major General in command of Union forces in Baltimore, 7 December 1862: "I did not come to Baltimore as an enemy to her citizens and certainly not to those of your sex. I came as a protector and to guard the citizens against evil men, and not to punish or imprison them because they did not think with me on the exciting subjects of the day. . . . It would be a source of extreme regret to me if any evil should befall you." Enclosed are Wool's printed calling card and a newspaper clipping regarding his views.
Edwin M. Stanton. Letter Signed as Secretary of War. Washington, 20 August 1863: "You are authorized to send your son a reasonable supply of his ordinary clothing and necessaries, to be inspected . . . and delivered at City Point for your son." With the original War Department envelope bearing Stanton's free-frank signature.
Mary A. Morris, wife of USA Brigadier General William W. Morris. Autograph Letter Signed, Fort McHenry, MD, 26 August 1863: The General promised to send Mrs. Thomas a pass tomorrow, "but as I know he does not always remember, and that beside involving you in the disagreeable task of pushing through all those officials, if he should not, the delay of a day might lose you a week in the flag of truce boat, I wrote the permit and had the pleasure of endorsing it."