(CIVIL WAR PRISON) Fontaine C Boston Letters of an imprison

Sale 2646 - Lot 147

Price Realized: $ 812

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(CIVIL WAR--PRISON.) Fontaine C. Boston. Letters of an imprisoned Confederate officer, one lamenting the death of his brother. 3 Autograph Letters Signed to cousin Virginia J. Miller of Washington. Each one page on a 10 x 7 3/4-inch sheet; folds, light paper clip stains, 2 with mount remnants on verso. Each with stamped envelope postmarked Delaware City. [Fort Delaware, DE], April-May 1865

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Fontaine Chesterfield Boston (1839-1871) graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and served as a lieutenant in the 5th Virginia Infantry. He was captured in 1864 and imprisoned in Fort Delaware, on an island between New Jersey and Delaware.

The first letter, dated 3 April, describes Confederate general Richard Lucian Page, a fellow prisoner: "I have made the acquaintance of Gen'l Page, and do admire him so much. He is so neat, and is such a fine-looking officer." His 7 May letter notes the death of his brother Col. Reuben Beverly Boston, said to be the last Confederate officer killed in battle: "I have just received a letter from my brother Dudley informing me that my brother Reuben was killed on the 6th April, in the battle near High Bridge at Farmville, and now rests in the family graveyard as was his wish if killed. And I think I may truly say a more generous, brave & noble man has not fallen during this awful war." His 31 May 1865 letter finds him still in prison with the war long over, complaining that about a dozen fellow officers were released daily "upon special applications being made by their friends to Gen'l Grant & to the President."