Jefferson Davis, Document Signed as Secretary of War, 1854
Davis, Jefferson (1808-1889). President of the Confederacy (1862-1865) and US Secretary of War (1853-1857). DS as Secretary of War, 1p, 7 x 9.5 in. (sight). January 23, 1855. Appointment of Samuel McKee (?) as cadet in service of the United States. Framed together with 3 x 5 in. plaque and 7 x 5 in. (sight) lithograph, 18 x 24 in. overall.
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.
Provenance: Property of Another Consignor
Condition
Very good, some folds but has not been observed outside the frame. Includes a letter of authenticity from The Legacy.