Illustrated here is a drop-rate folded letter addressed to Major W. L. Sutherland, Quartermaster C.S.A., Danville, Va. A single copy of the 5c Blue Richmond printing typographed issue overpays the two cents postage. The Danville postmark is dated May 12, 1863.

Figure 1 -- Danville, Va Folded Drop Letter

While the philatelic nature of the folded letter is interesting in its own right, the contents add to its unusual nature.

Diseases took a greater toll of both Union and Confederate soldiers than battlefield injuries. Large numbers of the soldiers came from rural areas and had not been exposed to common diseases such as chicken pox and mumps. It is estimated that 186,216 soldiers died of a variety of different illnesses during the conflict. Smallpox occurred in18,952 reported cases of whom 7,058 (37%) died.

The Confederate army saw their first cases of smallpox after contact with Yankees at Sharpsburg. With an outbreak threatening their army, all Confederates were ordered to be vaccinated. Doctors went out and vaccinated healthy children and then used the scabs to make more vaccines for their soldiers. The procedure for administering the vaccine was itself so crude that it often created problems. Each man would wait in line for a doctor to cut his arm three of four times with a knife, then put a little of the vaccine into the wounds. The doctors' wholesale slashing and cutting of arms gave the men sore arms for 10 days. Many soldiers, not willing to wait for the doctors, vaccinated one another using dirty pocketknives and scabs from fellow soldiers. Their contaminated large cuts often resulted in nasty infections. Dabney was lucky to have survived his case of smallpox and then became quite useful to the hospital because his recovery meant immunity to the disease.

As you can infer from the letter, some slaves were skilled laborers. The Confederate Government paid a slave owner a greater fee if the slave was skilled in a trade as was Dabney. Therefore, Mr. Henry would be compensated more if Dabney was utilized as a carpenter instead of hospital orderly. Mr. Henry also showed some compassion in asking that Dabney be granted a few days of leave to see his wife.