CSA General Joseph E. Johnston ALS to Texas Senator, L.T. Wigfall, With Perceptive Insight at Crucial Turning Point in the Civil War, July 31, 1862 

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Jun 10, 2016 - Jun 11, 2016

Set Reminder 2016-06-10 10:00:00 2016-06-11 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American History https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-history-1497
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• Lot Description
  CSA General Joseph E. Johnston ALS to Texas Senator, L.T. Wigfall, With Perceptive Insight at Crucial Turning Point in the Civil War, July 31, 1862 
  
  Lot of 2, featuring Joseph E. Johnston (1807-1891) Civil War-dated ALS and signed cover, never previously offered for sale, plus post-war ALS. 
   
  On May 31, 1862, General Johnston attacked General George B. McClellan's Union Army at the battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks. The battle was tactically inconclusive, but it stopped McClellan's advance on the city of Richmond. More significant, however, was that Johnston was wounded in his right shoulder and chest by an artillery shell on the second day of the battle. President Davis turned over command of the Confederate Army to General Robert E. Lee, who led the Army of Northern Virginia for the remainder of the war. 
   
  Lee's famed army was on the threshold of forging its immortal place in history, when General Joseph E. Johnston, hospitalized and suffering from his wounds, wrote the following letter, offered today, to Louis T. Wigfall, who was a member of the Confederate Congress from the State of Texas at this time: 
  
  ALS, 2pp, approx. 6 x 7 in., with original cover. Amelia Springs, July 31, 1862. Written from Johnston's hospital bed, the cover and letter read:
   
  Cover: To/ The Hon. L. T. Wigfall Coyner's Springs Botetourt County Va Genl Johnston. Franking(?) signature written vertically along left margin of cover. Cover bears black circular postmark Amelia Springs Va Aug 2 and manuscript Paid 10.
  
  Letter:
  
  Amelia Springs
  July 31th 1862
   
  My dear Wigfall,
   
  The last mail brought your note from Coyner's. Many thanks for it.
  
  I send some letters which came the day after you passed. They could not be forwarded sooner. We had heard the name of the place to which you had your baggage checked, but didn't know that of the post office.
  
  You were lucky in being turned away from this place. It is the meanest of the kind in the world. Kept by three brothers who vie with each other in miserly & unaccommodating spirit & ignorance of ordinary decency. I should follow you immediately but for fear of the effect of the journey. I can't stand hand/hard(?) shaking.
  
  When does Congress meet? Did you learn the plans of the government in relation to the war? I am very anxious to know what to expect on rejoining the army. It is evident already that there are to be two armies. I want the one they are forming in the North. But unless Lee chooses to command that of Richmond I shall doubtless be assigned to it. To wait McC's leisure - I have already had something too much of that.
  
  Very truly yours
  J. E. Johnston
  
  What has become of the application for a Captaincy of Eng's for my friend Schleichen?
  
  With photocopied letter from Bessie Gresham, in which she wrote: “Autograph War Letters of ... Genl Johnston ... Given me by Mrs. Taylor (daughter of Genl Wigfall – Dec 1922”).
  
  Accompanied by 3pp ALS from Louis Wigfall's niece, Evelyn M.B. Tiffany, to Bessie Gresham. Although unrelated to the first letter's content, it does concern Johnston. The letter reads, in part:
  
  Dear Mrs. Gresham
  I am sending you the sword of General Joseph E. Johnston feeling very certain it will be prized and cared for while you live and will form part of your valuable Confederate collection to be preserved as in your wisdom you think best.
  
  General Johnston wore this sword for many years during the Indian wars, Mexican & for the first year of the Confederacy. He replaced it with a much heavier one giving this sword in 1863 to his wife with the request that she give it to her nephew & his godchild Louis McLane Tiffany. My husband gave it to me. Knowing my love for the Confederacy & also for Uncle Joe as we called Gen. Johnston. I am glad to pass this precious sword on to you dear Mrs. Gresham as you valued Gen. Johnston & he valued & loved you.
  
  The sword mentioned in this letter is no longer with this collection and thus is not included in this lot.
  
  Bessie E. Johnston Gresham Collection of Confederate Manuscripts, Photographs, & Relics
  
  Lots 89-115
  
  Bessie E. Johnston Gresham was born in Baltimore, MD in 1848 in a home sympathetic to the Southern cause. Union forces imprisoned one of her brothers for aiding the South, and her brother Elliott was a Confederate officer who lost a leg at the battle of Antietam. She became an ardent and unreconstructed Confederate, and, in 1887, she married Thomas Baxter Gresham, a Confederate veteran from Macon, GA. She was actively involved in the Baltimore chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and amassed a notable collection of Confederate manuscripts, photographs, and relics at the Gresham home at 815 Park Avenue in Baltimore. Most of her items were left to the Museum of the Confederacy, the Maryland Historical Society, and other institutions. This important collection of Johnston-Gresham family and Confederate-related material, was passed down through Bessie Johnston Gresham’s step-son, Leroy Gresham, before it was acquired by the consignor.
  
  The collection features over 50 CDVs accumulated by Bessie and Thomas Gresham, offered as Lots 89-100. Some are wardate, and others were apparently acquired in Baltimore soon after the war's end. Some CDVs include patriotic inscriptions and quotations written by Bessie on reverse, which showcase her deep feeling of love and devotion to the Southern Cause.
  
  In a June 1862 letter delivered through the Union blockade, Elliott Johnston, serving as aide-de-camp to CSA General Richard B. Garnett, mentioned collecting photos of CSA generals for his then 14-year-old sister Bessie.
  
  In a 1926 issue of Confederate Veteran magazine, a memorial essay described Bessie's girlhood during the war:
  
  "One of her brothers, who was on General Ewell’s staff, suffered the loss of a leg at the battle of Sharpsburg; her two other brothers were active Southern sympathizers and were under constant surveillance by Federal authorities for giving all possible aid to the Confederacy; her home was a center from which radiated help. “
  
  "Reared in this atmosphere of deep love for our ‘cause,’ she became an ardent and unreconstructed Confederate. "
  
  During her girlhood, Bessie was acquainted with many Southern generals and received from them letters, photographs, and autographs, as well as a number of gifts. 

  Condition

  Both are in very good condition with some traditional folds, there is some minor toning of the pages.
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