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Item# 16957
Price: $1500
CIVILIAN FLAG OF TRUCE: NEWBERRY C.H. / S.C. // NOV / 14 /1864 double circle datestamp on small clean blue commercially made cover with PAID from Newberry showing that the Confederate postage was paid. Manuscript “By Flag of Truce” at lower left and addressed to Rev. N. M. Gordon, Keene, Kentucky. Union postage was noted with DUE 6 (3¢ penalty for not prepaying the postage because this is a civilian, not military cover). This is the only Flag of Truce cover from the Newberry District per Giana Wayman and it broke several rules, although there were not infrequent exceptions. There is no evidence of censorship; evidently, they let this one go through. Had there been a CSA stamp on it, it likely would have gone to the Dead Letter Office. Starting in mid-February 1862, civilian flag-of-truce mail sent North was diverted to the Dead Letter Office, per U.S. General Order No. 7. This order followed an announcement in the January 1862 U.S. Mail & Post Office Assistant that stated, "The facilities afforded by sending letters to the rebel states under a flag-of-truce are not intended, and cannot be permitted, to cover general correspondence." By the end of February, the CSA mail system stopped forwarding almost all such letters. The cover was sent unsealed because civilian mail was subject to examination just like prisoner mail. It did not use the mandated two envelope method; we don’t know if the letter was properly kept to one page per regulations. There are other covers from this correspondence (lot 4114, Siegel sale 981, Walske collection) that did end up in the Dead Letter Office from Rev. N. M. Gordon but from Keene, Ky, going South. An exceptionally nice and unusual use. Ex Giana Wayman. $1,500.