Beschreibung:

Early true copies of a letter and a telegram from Jefferson Davis to his wife Varina in April 1865, the copies written and preceded by an Autograph Letter Signed by Rufus Bullock, the general superintendent of the Adams Express Company, explaining to Thomas Eckert the Acting Assistant Secretary of War, how they were received via the Southern Express Company.
New York: 9 June 1865 [Bullock’s letter]. 3 pp., recto only of three tall sheets ruled paper (355 x 215 mm). Both the letter and telegram additionally signed by J. M. Goodwin, attesting that they are true copies. Condition : minor soiling, stab holes in the top margin. Davis’s14 April 1865 letter: “I will come to you if I can. Everything is dark. You should prepare for the worst by dividing your baggage so as to move in wagons. If you can go to Abbeville it seems best as I am now advised …” Davis’s 26 April 1865 telegram: “There is increasing hazard of desertion among the troops. The Cavalry is now the last hope, and how long they will adhere in sufficient numbers to offer resistance is doubtful. I will organize what force of Cavalry can be had. Hampton offers to lead them, and thinks he can force his way across the Mississippi … The tide of war will follow me …” These two letters by Davis are published in vol. XI of the Papers of Jefferson Davis, the first from the actual letter, and the latter based on a copy of the above letter by Bullock to Eckert. Bullock’s letter explains, “As a matter of curiosity I send you a copy of the last dispatch Davis ever sent by Telegraph to his wife. Probably the last he ever sent to anybody. It was sent in cypher & deciphered by Mr. E. F. Ludwig an operator who is the Agt. of the So. Ex. Co. at Augusta …” It is unclear if these pages were the actual letter and copies sent to Eckert, or a retained copy kept by the Adams Express Company. Regardless, they provide remarkable insight into the final days of the Confederacy.