Apr 08, 2014 - Sale 2344

Sale 2344 - Lot 105

Price Realized: $ 4,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
LAST ISSUE OF RICHMOND'S LAST CONFEDERATE PAPER (CIVIL WAR--NEWSPAPER.) The final issue of the Richmond Daily Dispatch before the arrival of the Union troops. 4 pages, 20 x 14 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet; foxing, small bit of label affixed to upper margin, contemporary ink inscription in upper margin reading "Last Rebel paper published in Richmond." Richmond, VA, 3 April 1865
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The Confederate government began evacuation of Richmond on 2 April, setting fire to warehouses and other strategic spots as they left the following morning. The Dispatch managed to publish this final issue before its presses burned. Soon afterward, Union troops took possession of the city.
This newspaper hardly reads like the last gasp of a dying nation. The front page is dominated by an account of the recent Battle of Bentonsville, while the second page covers rumors of Union troop movements and the arrival of Abraham Lincoln at nearby City Point. The local news column reads like any other local news column--a hen house has been robbed, a fire consumed a lone tenement on Marshall Street. Numerous advertisements appear for Confederate bonds, as well as for an opera at the Richmond Theatre that evening, and for a book auction planned for Wednesday. William Gray seeks to hire out his Negro woman for the remainder of the year, while George Gary advertises that his Negro boy Colin has run away. A short article reflects on the glorious record of Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry, and concludes "It is not numbers we need so much as the genius and energy for handling men. Our troops are the best in the world, and if they had always leaders as capable of direction as the men of execution, the stars of the Confederacy would now be shining out without a cloud." Only a short editorial on the third page addresses the gravity of the situation--Petersburg is believed to have fallen, and "on the preservation of the Petersburg line of defences was believed to depend the safety of this city."
Chronicling America lists only 4 extant copies of this final issue, and none are known to have appeared at auction since 1905.