Items for Sale - Prisoner of War & Civilian Flag of Truce - Section One

Item# 19608

Price: $3,500

CIVILIAN FLAG-OF-TRUCE: CSA 12c, 10¢ bluish green (4 huge margins) tied boldly struck clear RICHMOND / VA // JAN / 18 (1864) CDS on INTERESTING FOLDED LETTER written in English for purposes of censoring and datelined Havana (CUBA) 22 Deceb. 1863, to Mrs. Oskar Aichel, Anderson C.H., S.C. from her German-immigrant husband. Aichel says he has been in Havana for one and a half months and describes the difficulty of finding work at reasonable wages, characterizing the locals as "those mis-trusting vicious creoles."  He says, in part, “Men of all professions Doctors, music teacher, clerks, teachers of languages etc. find the beginning here very hard and some even give it up in despair but after a person is so far that he earns what he consumes ($60-80¢ @month), then he is generally safe and I have arrived at that point.” The letter is endorsed "By Flag of Truce" and was enclosed in an outer envelope (discarded at the exchange point), which carried it by steamer to New York City and from there to the exchange point through Old Point Comfort to Fortress Monroe in Virginia. The enclosed letter was censored and marked "Examined J. Cassels" (John Cassels, Captain and Provost Marshal), then sent by flag-of-truce boat to Richmond, where the Confederate stamp and postmark were applied. Letters originating outside the continental United States and carried into the Confederacy under a flag-of-truce are extremely rare—rarer than blockade-run covers into Confederate ports. Illustrated in Special Routes book (p. 93). Ex Murphy and Walske, signed Brian Green. EXTREMELY FINE AND RARE FLAG-OF-TRUCE USE FROM CUBA to South Carolina via New York City, Fortress Monroe and Richmond, Virginia. $3,500.

To Top