Beschreibung:

1 p. ALS, 7.5 x 12 in., believed to be from one of the Donnan brothers addressed to CSA Captain Frank Potts dated January 9, 1864. In the letter, Donnan seeks return of a slave who is with General Jenkins' Brigade. A Cavalry Raid into Virginia by Union Gen. William W. Averell prevented a previous attempt to retrieve the slave. The transcription reads: Petersburg Jan’y 9th 1864 Captain Frank Potts Dear Sir, There is a servant boy about 18 or 19 years of age named Edmund who belongs to the estate of the late Mrs. Lucy Baird who left here with GEN'L JENKINS' BRIGADE last summer and who is still I am pretty sure still with the Brigade. This boy lived last year with Riddle & McIlwaine in their tobacco factory. Mr. R. D. McIlwaine is the executor of Mrs. Baird but this boy Edmund was given by her will to her brother Benson F. Jones and his wife and children one of whom is Sam’l G. Jones whom doubtless you know. I am the trustee now for the family. Some few weeks ago, Mr. R. L. Jones intended to go out to where you all are to bring the boy home if he could find him. Averell’s Raid stopped him. Whether he could go now I don’t know but from what Mr. Andrew Dunn ?) told me I thought it not improbable but that you might be able to forward him to me here, either IN CHARGE OF THE EXPRESS CO. or by some other safe method. Have the kindness to aid me in this matter and try and find Edmund and let me hear from you about him. Dr. David Steel will probably hand you this. He has been ordered to your Department. [No signature, but the handwriting of this unsigned letter appears to be that of either Alexander or James M. Donnan.] CAPTAIN FRANK POTTS (1835-1890) was born in Ireland. He married Virginia Finley. Before the Civil War, he was a merchant in Richmond, Virginia, and after the war he was a grocer in Petersburg, Virginia. During the war, he served as a Sergeant in Company C 1st Virginia Infantry, and later as A.Q.M. & paymaster to the 1st Corps. GENERAL ALBERT GALLATIN JENKINS (1830-1864) was an attorney, planter, representative the US Congress and First Confederate Congress, and Confederate brigadier general during the Civil War. Jenkins was wounded at Gettysburg, and after recuperating by late autumn 1863, Jenkins left for south-western Viginia to command a Cavalry Brigade. On 9 May 1864, he was mortally wounded in the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain. AVERELL'S RAID refers to the 15 December 1863 Cavalry Raid by Union General William Woods Averell (1832-1900), that cut the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad at Salem, Virginia. For a time, Averell's destruction of the Railroad would have impeded travel to Southwestern Virginia. ROBERT DUNN MCILWAINE (1828-1870) was the son of Archibald Graham McIlwaine and Martha Dunn. He married Lucy Atkinson Pryor and ran several Commission & tobacco related businesses in Petersburg. Gen. George A. Pickett married in Petersburg during September 1863, and with his bride, took up residence in the palatial Robert Dunn McIlwaine residence in the city. MRS. LUCY BAIRD was probably LUCY ANN BAIRD wife of William Baird, who died in 1863 at 59 years of age. She is buried in Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, Virginia. DR. DAVID STEEL was born in Scotland about 1830. He received his diploma from a European College. He was a member of the Medical Society of Virginia. He died in Petersburg Virginia in 1886. Condition: Ink on unlined white paper of good rag content; fold lines, otherwise good condition.