?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
A UNION SOLDIER'S SENSE OF HUMOR Two falsified documents. Appointment of the "Chief Inspector of the Slave Mistresses of my Confederacy. . ." * $1000 Six Per Cent Non Taxable Certificate. Each a partially printed document accomplished by hand, bearing the obviously false signatures of Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State for the Confederacy, and Robert Tyler, Treasurer and dated 23 April 1865. Two 4to leaves, a few professional paper repairs to the reverse of both documents; iron-gall ink somewhat faded on both, but legible, paper evenly toned. Montgomery, AL, 1865
As Union troops occupied Confederate towns and cities throughout the South, they took over court-houses as temporary headquarters. These documents appear to be an attempt at humor on the part of a union soldier. One appoints "Miss Margie H. Burnett, of Plymouth, Massachusetts" as "chief inspector of the lives, characters and habits of the slave mistresses of my Confederacy . . ." It would seem that the soldier, probably an officer with some education, thought it a great joke to take a blank Confederate form headed "Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America"--and fill it out with this absurd appointment. Of course, by April 23, 1865 Lee had surrendered at Appomattox, and the War was over. The other document is also made out to Margie H. Burnett.
