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

Item# 19612

Price: $250

FORT PULASKI GA: US 65, 3¢ rose tied blue BALTIMORE / MD // AUG / 19 (1865) duplex cancel, straightline STEAMBOAT cancel and encircled DUE 3, on cover addressed to former Confederate Senator Hon. Robert M. T. Hunter, Care of Capt Bryant, Commanding Fort Pulaski Georgia, while prisoner,  manuscript directive “Via New York.” $250.

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (1809–1887) was a Virginia lawyer, politician, and plantation and owner of more than 120 slaves at the onset of the American Civil War. He was a U.S. representative (1837–1843, 1845–1847), Speaker of the House (1839–1841), and a U.S. senator (1847–1861). During the war. Hunter was appointed Confederate Secretary of State (1861–1862), which post he resigned after being elected Confederate senator (1862–1865). After the war, Hunter failed to win re-election to the U.S. Senate, but did serve as the Treasurer of Virginia (1874–1880) before retiring to his farm. Hunter’s portrait is on a $10 Confederate bill. He was one of three emissaries of the Confederacy who met with Lincoln and Seward at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference on February 3, 1865. He was arrested by federal forces later in 1865 and imprisoned without trial at Fort Pulaski until 1866. In 1867, he helped organize a local conservative party that helped save Virginia from the Radical Reconstruction that was inflicted on other southern states. As a former U.S. Speaker of the House, his portrait had been on display in the U.S. Capitol. The portrait was removed from public display in the Speaker's Lobby outside the House Chamber after an order issued by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on June 18, 2020. He was the youngest person to ever hold that office.

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