SR46

USA 3c Red Star Die uncancelled and paid no postage (Adversity Cover). Cover handcarried to Mrs. Rowland B. Smith, Camden, Arkansas. Manuscript instructions at lower left in the same hand as the address "Will Capt Thomas be kind enough to hand this to Mr Rainey and oblige. R. B. Smith." The sender was Rowland B. Smith (1828-1906) who served as an officer in the 18th Ark Inf and was promoted Major and served as the brigade Commissary Supply Officer and later on the staff of Arkansas Brig-Gen Thomas Pleasant Dockery (1838-1898). Major Smith was severely wounded at the Battle of Mark's Mill (4/18/1864 in Cleveland County, Arkansas). The cover is undated. Because of the instructions on the cover, it is presumed it comes from the time that Major Smith was serving east of the Mississippi River as Major Smith did not enter service until March 1862 (the unit took part in the Battle of Corinth in April 1862 and the Port Hudson Siege in the summer of 1863) and the cover was very likely smuggled across the Mississippi River by the two go-betweens, Capt Thomas and Mr. Rainey. Some light water staining which with a little stretch of the imagination might have been caused by a river crossing. Certainly an interesting Arkansas related cover which bears further research. Major Smith's somewhat extensive wartime letters (1862-1864) to his wife and others are archived at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Ex-Matz, Ex-Kaufmann.

$300.00 SOLD

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