(LINCOLN ABRAHAM) Heiner Robert G An officer in the Colored

Sale 2432 - Lot 201

Price Realized: $ 812

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

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

"MANKIND HAS LOST ITS BEST FRIEND SINCE THE CRUCIFICTION OF CHRIST" (LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) Heiner, Robert G. An officer in the Colored Troops mourns Lincoln and hunts for Booth. Autograph Letter Signed to mother [Mary Graham Heiner]. 4 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet; blue ink stain across top edges. (MRS) On the Potomac River, 23 April 1865

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Robert Graham Heiner (1839-1890) of Kittanning, PA was a lieutenant in the Pennsylvania-based 22nd United States Colored Troops, one of the most distinguished black regiments of the Civil War. In this letter, Heiner reflects on the regiment's sterling reputation and the Lincoln assassination while embarking on the hunt for the assassin. As his regiment sailed down the Potomac in a military transport toward lower Maryland, he wrote "We are in search of J. Wilkes Booth the murderer of our dear president. We mean to scout three counties in search on him. If we get him I fear we will not be able to get him to Washington alive. . . . Secretary Stanton sent for us I believe and he has sent us on this raid. . . . They are Penn'a colored men and you can trust them anywhere and for anything, they cannot be bribed." He also boasts that the 22nd was "the only reg't from the Army of the James to attend the funeral of the president. . . . Our reg't led the procession. I commanded the second company." He describes the funeral at length, adding that "I never wept so much over the death of any person as his. O! To think that great, good, and honest man to be murdered so. Mankind has lost its best friend since the crucifiction of Christ. . . . He is the greatest man I think that ever lived." Provenance: Hamilton auction, 14 October 1964, to the consignor.