GUN SPRING 2018
The live portion of this session begins on Wednesday, March 21, 2018.
JEB STUART CIVIL WAR ARCHIVE.This grouping consists of two wonderful and personal autograph letters of JEB Stuart and a Flora Stuart letter sending a clipped autograph of her late husband. 1) Framed ALS written on Virginia Female Institute March 16, 1886 on personal stationery of Mrs. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Principal. She is responding to a request for an autograph of General Stuart which she encloses "cut from an old private letter". She signs the letter "Mrs. J.E.B. Stuart". Flora Cooke, the daughter of later US General Philip St. George Cooke married JEB Stuart in 1855. Her brother, John Rogers Cooke, would become a Confederate General. Stuart named his first son, born in 1860, Philip St. George Cooke Stuart in honor of his father-in-law but changed it to J.E.B. Stuart, Jr. in disgust of his father-in-law's staying in the Union Army. After General Stuart's wounding at Yellow Tavern, Flora Stuart rushed to be by her husband's side but he died one hour before she arrived. His last whispered words were "I am resigned; God's will be done". Flora wore the black of mourning for the remainder of her life and never remarried. She lived in Saltville, Virginia, for 15 years after the war, where she opened and taught at a school in a log cabin. She worked from 1880 to 1898 as principal of the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton, Virginia, a position for which Robert E. Lee had recommended her before his death ten years earlier. 2) 1-pg 8" x 5" autograph letter signed cryptically "KGS" (Knight of the Golden Spurs). This letter written to his niece Nannie "Hdq at the Bower, July 18th 1863" just days after the retreat from Gettysburg. He is sending his niece a cloak which he apparently captured during the Gettysburg Campaign "will my dear Miss Nannie do me the honor to wear when the season permits this cloak which I obtained expressly for her in foreign parts. When it encircles that form, tripping over the wood lawns of Dundee, may it recall remembrances of one who would like once more to share the pleasure of the promenade... the gift is a trifle but when she throws it over her shoulders to take a walk will she not remember "K.G.S.". This most interesting personal letter to a family member is published in the 1990 limited edition text, The Letters of Major General James E. B. Stuart, pg 329, Stuart-Mosby Historical Society which copy of accompanies this lot. The text has two other letters to his niece, also cryptically signed "Knight of the Golden Spur". 3) 8" x 5" ANS in pencil being actually 18 lines of words to a song all in his hand, initialed "JEB" four times apparently for his lines. Verso has text in another hand "Programme of a Serenade, given by Major General Stuart and staff to the Ladies of the "Bower" Oct 9th 1862". Another note in pencil with a pair of crossed Confederate flags in colored pencil written by Henry B. McClellan who served with Stuart and wrote the text The Life and Campaigns of Major-General JEB Stuart, 1885, tells the story of this document. Henry Brainerd McClellan (1840-1904) from Philadelphia was first cousin to Union General George B. McClellan and was disowned by his Unionist family as he was convinced in the Confederate cause and love of his adopted Virginia. The Bower, mentioned in previous 2 letters, was the ancestral home of the Dandridge family of Jefferson County (now West Virginia) where Stuart had camped for 3 weeks in September-October 1982. 4) 17-1/2" x 13-1/2" decorated silver-plated tray presented "MRS. FLORA STUART FROM SALTVILLE CHURCH". Accompanying the tray, is a 2006 text Images of America SALTVILLE by Jeffery C. Weaver. SIZE: CONDITION: 1) Very good to fine. Creases at folds. Clip signature has dark, legible ink. Not examined out of frame. 2) Very good to fine. Creases at folds. 3) Very good. Creases and starting at folds. 4) Good to very good overall. Only remnants of plate still present. Old splatters of paint on reverse. Several bends and numerous scratches and areas of erosion and pitting. Accompanying books are very good to fine. 53112-4 JS (4,000-6,000)