Confederate Officer Joseph F. Belton Archive

Lot 212

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American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Including African Americana:Premier Auction by Cowan's Auctions

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American Historical Ephemera & Photography, I...

By Cowan's Auctions

Jun 26, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-06-26 10:00:00 2020-06-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Including African Americana:Premier Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-historical-ephemera-photography-including-african-americana-premier-auction-5208 Cowan's Auctions is delighted to present the June 26 American Historical Ephemera and Photography Auction, including 55 lots devoted to the African American experience, over 175 lots dating from the Civil War Era, and more than 60 lots documenting life in the American West. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com

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Lot Description

Confederate Officer Joseph F. Belton Archive

Manuscripts, documents, and personal ephemera related to Col. Joseph F. (Winfield Scott) Belton (1820-1889), a Confederate officer who enlisted with Hampton's Legion in 1861 and later served on the staff of Gen. E. Kirby Smith as colonel and assistant adjutant general. Collection includes approximately 23 documents spanning 1862-1896, a Confederate imprint, and two wallets identified to Belton.

Born in 1820 to career military officer Col. Francis S. Belton and Harriet Kirby Belton, Joseph Francis was baptized with the name Winfield Scott. The younger Belton received an appointment to West Point arriving in 1838, however, he was dismissed from the military academy in 1839. Belton went on to graduate from Harvard with an undergraduate law degree in 1842. The onset of the Civil War saw Belton living in Brooklyn, NY, but his sympathies were with the Confederacy having attended school in Charleston, SC, as a young man. It was at this time that he changed his name from Winfield Scott to Joseph Francis. According to HDS, Belton enlisted as a corporal in Co. A of the SC Hampton Legion Light Artillery where he participated in the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Upon joining the staff of Gen. Kirby, Belton served in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and the Trans-Mississippi West. After the war, Col. Belton moved for a period of years to South America and was noted for his advocacy of the "Price Grant," a plan to settle ex-patriate Confederates in the Venezuelan state of Guayana. He returned to New York City by 1870 and lived there until his death in 1889.

The archive features numerous items related to Belton's military service, including a leather wallet identified on interior flap to "J.F.Belton C.S. Army." One notable letter dated July 23, 1862, features this somewhat impish statement made to Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith: "I am informed that a journal published in Knoxville charges that I made my descent into Powell's Valley with a force of about four thousand men. I probably attach too much consequence to so silly a statement, but I feel it be alike due to the able and intrepid General against whom I operated, and to myself, to say, that on the day I entered Cumberland Gap, my aggregate force as shown by my consolidated report, was over twelve thousand....Your obedient servant / George W. Morgan Brig Genl Comng." Also, Belton's personal copy of "General Orders from the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, Confederate States Army, For the Year 1863," Richmond: A. Morris, Publisher. 1864. Approx. 4.25 x 7.25 in. 244pp. "Col. Belton C.S.A" inscribed on the spine.

The remainder of the war-date documents are representative of the closing days of the conflict: a brief letter dated May 23, 1865, written on behalf of Maj. Gen. James F. Fagan inviting Belton and other members of the Department Staff to the general's private quarters; a printed copy, approx. 4.25 x 8.25 in., of Confederate Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner's Farewell Address; Belton's parole dated June 9, 1865, Shreveport, LA, along with a ticket of the same date from the "River Transportation Office" furnishing transport on the steamer "Ida May" to New Orleans; and a receipt dated June 20, 1865, from the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans listing charges for room and board. A final document, written in Spanish, dated July 17, 1867, comes from the office of "Juan Bautista Dalla Costa, Presidente del Estado Soberano de Guayana" and authorizes "Jose Francisco de Sales Belton" safe passage from Venezuela to New York.

Additional documents in the collection include letters from Harriet Kirby Belton to her son, general correspondence written to Belton ca 1870s, newspaper clippings, and several letters written to Samuel Belton (1856-1899), son of Col. J.F. Belton.

See also Lot 65 Mexican War Colonel Francis S. Belton Archive.
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