Sale 988 — The Steven C. Walske Collection of Civil War Special Routes
Sale Date — Thursday, 27 May, 2010
Category — Flag-of-Truce Mail: Other Routes


VERY FINE. THIS IS THE ONLY RECORDED COVER CARRIED BY FLAG-OF-TRUCE FROM THE CONFEDERACY INTO FEDERAL-OCCUPIED NEW ORLEANS.
Mail from the Confederate States to residents of New Orleans was generally discouraged. This is the first and only recorded example of such mail that was exchanged via the flag-of-truce route between Mobile and New Orleans. It was censored on both sides; by Mobile Provost Marshal Jules C. Denis at Mobile and the Union censor at New Orleans.
The papers of Zoe Jane Campbell can be found at the Manuscript Department of the William R. Perkins Library, Duke University: "871: Zoe Jane Campbell Papers, 1855-1898. 152 items. New Orleans, La. Principally family letters to Zoe Jane Campbell during the Civil War concerning Confederate Army matters such as troop movements, immorality among the soldiers, complaints against officers, soldiers' pay, and health conditions. There is considerable information on the U.S. military prisons at Elmira, New York, and at Belleville, Louisiana. Also included is material on social life and customs in New York and Washington, D.C., and on the internal disorders in northern Mexico in the late 1850's."












VERY FINE. A BEAUTIFUL MIXED-FRANKING FLAG-OF-TRUCE COVER FROM A KENTUCKY CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TO HIS FAMILY IN UNION-CONTROLLED KENTUCKY.
Albert Corbin joined many of his fellow Boone County citizens and enlisted in the Confederate Army. He served from July 1863 as a 1st Lieutenant in Company B, Kentucky 3rd Cavalry Battalion, which was part of noted cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan's Division.






VERY FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE MISSISSIPPI RIVER LOCAL FLAG-OF-TRUCE COVER. A FASCINATING COVER.
According to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, two U.S. surgeons were sent via flag-of-truce from Natchez to Fayette, Mississippi, on November 30, 1864, to care for a captured and wounded U.S. scout. They picked up this cover at Fayette and returned to Natchez on December 2. With the Union in control of the Mississippi River, occasional local flag-of-truce exchanges were made with U.S. naval gunboats patrolling the river, though covers demonstrating this practice are extremely rare. Such mail was examined on the gunboat and forwarded to either New Orleans or, in the case of this cover, to Cairo, Illinois. Since it was handed to the doctors who brought it to Natchez, it never entered the C.S.A. postal system and thus has no Confederate postage or markings (nor a discarded outer cover).
Willie D. Postlethwaite was a private in Co. A, 9th Louisiana Cavalry. He was captured near Corinth Miss. on Oct. 5, 1863, and was sent to Alton Ill. on Oct. 6. He was transferred to Fort Delaware on Feb. 29, 1864, and exchanged on Mar. 7, 1865.
Ex Birkinbine. Illustrated in Special Routes (p. 81)


VERY FINE APPEARANCE. AN EXTREMELY RARE FLAG-OF-TRUCE COVER SENT VIA MOBILE, ALABAMA.
We believe this originated from Ft. Delaware in 1862 based on the Pensen censor marking and the use of a 5c stamp. It is likely that this cover was sent via flag-of-truce to Petersburg and carried outside the mails to Mobile, which is only approximately 150 miles south-west of Hayneville.
Ex Krieger. With 1987 A.P.S. certificate


AN EXTREMELY FINE AND VERY RARE EXPRESS COMPANY USAGE TO A CONFEDERATE PRISONER AT JOHNSON'S ISLAND.
According to prisoner-of-war records, Captain Anderson was captured at Silvers Creek Va. and imprisoned at Sandusky on April 3, 1865, six days before Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. He was paroled on oath on June 18, 1865. While personal necessities and sometimes money was sent to Confederate prisoners, the amount noted on this cover, $100.00, and the delivery by Adams Express make it an exceptional usage.
Ex Kimmel, Kohlhepp, Allen and Hall. Illustrated and discussed in the Chronicle (No. 95, Aug. 1977)




VERY FINE. AN EARLY AND EXCEEDINGLY RARE PRISONER-OF-WAR COVER FROM THE FIRST CAMP OGLETHORPE. APPROXIMATELY FIVE ARE KNOWN.
The first Camp Oglethorpe was open for prisoners as early as May 1862. Approximately 900 Federal troops captured at the Battle of Shiloh were processed through the prison. As a result of the formal exchange cartel agreed to by the U.S. and C.S.A. governments in July 1862, the camp was discontinued, to be replaced by a stockade for Union officers in 1864.
Illustrated in Antrim (p. 140)


VERY FINE. A RARE PRISONER-OF-WAR COVER FROM 21 RAMPART STREET, WHICH WAS USED AS A UNION PRISON FROM 1863 TO 1865. FEWER THAN FIVE COVERS ARE RECORDED.
21 Rampart street was a residence that was used to hold Confederate officers, including those captured at Fort Hudson in July 1863 (Harrison p. 143). Captain William H. Sterling was Commissary of Prisoners in 1865 when this cover was sent.