Lieut Bernard Barton Vassall Company E 15th Mass Infantry

POW235

Two Covers - Ligons Tobacco Warehouse Prison in Richmond. The First Cover and the Letter are Very Fine. The second cover shows just a little corner wear but is otherwise Very Fine. The letter traveled in both covers. First Cover - Addressed to Lieut B. B. Vassall, Prisoner of War, Richmond, Va. No postal markings and no examiner's markings. Very likely hand delivered. The original one page letter is with the cover. The letter is datelined "Bartonsville Dec 31st 1861" and is from Lieut Vassall's uncle S(tephen) Barton. Bernard Barton Vassall (1835-1895) from Oxford, Mass., a nephew of Clara Barton who founded the American Red Cross, entered Union service as 2nd Lieut of Co E 15th Mass Inf 7/30/1861. Lieut Vassall was captured as a POW at Balls Bluff (Va) 10/21/1861 and confined in Richmond at the Ligons Tobacco Warehouse Prison. He was exchanged 2/21/1862 and rejoined his unit and was promoted 1st Lieut 8/6/1862 but resigned 11/6/1862. He had later service as a Hospital Steward in Washington DC. After the war, he lived in Webster, Mass. Stephen Barton (1806-1865), brother of Clara Barton and Lieut Vassall's uncle, is listed on the Federal Census of 1860 as a lumberman in Hertford County, North Carolina, where he relocated from Massachusetts. Bartonsville NC is a listed post office in that county and was centered around Stephen Barton's lumber mill. Stephen Barton was also the postmaster. Somehow he had the letter privately delivered to his POW nephew in Richmond who had spent some time working for him in his lumber business in North Carolina before the war. Second Cover -- South-to-North through-the-lines POW cover from Ligons Tobacco Warehouse Prison to Massachusetts. When Lieut Vassall received the letter from his uncle, he used the back of the letter to write a short note to his cousin in Massachusetts to let his cousin know he was all right and include instructions to his cousin on how to write to his father in North Carolina. "You can write directly to your Father, confining yourself to 1 page common letter paper and private matters". He then forwarded the original letter with his note in a separate envelope to his cousin. The cover is endorsed at upper left "From a prisoner of war Richmond Va" and addressed to Saml R. Barton, North Oxford, Massachusetts. The cover was taken to the transfer point perhaps as part of a large group of letters by courier this early in the war as there is no CSA postage. At the transfer point the cover received the Old Point Comfort, Va Union postmark dated 24 JAN (1862) and handstamp DUE 3 as the Union postage was not pre-paid. Union examiner's mark at upper right "Sold(ier's) Letter Mjr (Major) von Herrmann USA." Two covers with a very interesting history and important covers to the story of Ligons Tobacco Warehouse which closed as a prison in early 1862. Galen Harrson illustrates another Ligons cover from the Vassall Correspondence to his cousin in his book Prisoner's Mail of the American Civil War. It really is amazing that these two covers and the letter have remained together after all these years.

$900.00

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