'Increasingly rare' unpublished Lincoln letter goes for $85,000

A recently discovered letter written by President Abraham Lincoln that offers a glimpse into his thinking during the early part of the Civil War sold this week in Pennsylvania for $85,000, according to an autograph dealer. The previously unpublished letter had been in the same private collection for at least a century before it was acquired earlier this year, said Nathan Raab, the principal of the Raab Collection, which buys and sells historical autographs, documents and signed letters. -- Article

James Longstreet, worried Confederate service might disqualify him, sought a federal pension based on his Mexican-American War wound. A namesake society now has his letter

James Longstreet is at center at 1888 Gettysburg reunion (NPS photo)

The Longstreet Society recently acquired a brief but fascinating letter from the legendary Confederate general seeking a federal pension 20 years after the Civil War’s end.

In an Oct. 2, 1885, letter from Gainesville, Ga., where he lived the last 25 years of his life, James Longstreet expresses guarded hope that his valiant service in the U.S. Army in the Mexican-American War will outweigh any concerns about him later fighting for the Confederacy against the Union.

Here’s the transcription of his correspondence to officials in Washington, D.C.

The general's pension request (click to enlarge, courtesy of The Longstreet Society)

“I beg your indulgence to inquire if I am entitled to a pension for a severe wound received in storming Chapultepec in Mexico on the 13th of September 1847.

“At the same time I will ask that the matter be so investigated that it shall not reach the newspapers, unless the decision should be favorable as an advance discussion will put me in position not very pleasant.

“I have frequently been told by surgeons who examine applicants that my claims is a just one, but the fact of being in the Confederate Army since the war casts a doubt in my mind, as to (the) law in this case.

“I remain Respectfully +
truly your obt servant

James Longstreet”

The Longstreet Society, based in Gainesville, said it believes the letter was successful but it wants to verify that.

Jeffry D. Wert, author of the 1993 book “General James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s Most Controversial Soldier,” told the Picket he was reasonably certain Longstreet (left) did not receive the federal pension, “which was the case for high ranking Confederate officers.”

But it is difficult to know for sure.

“When the general's house burned to the ground, history lost much, if not nearly all, of his personal papers,” Wert wrote in an email.

Interestingly, the U.S. Pension Bureau worked to provide benefits for Union – not Confederate – veterans. The latter usually turned to their states for pensions and other relief. The Clara Barton Museum says the agency distributed about $138 million to nearly 1 million Union veterans and surviving relatives.

Longstreet, a West Point graduate, served in several battles during the Mexican-American War and suffered a thigh wound while carrying the flag for the 8^th US Infantry at Chapultepec. He handed the flag to George E. Pickett, who would also gain fame during the Civil War as Longstreet’s subordinate at Gettysburg. Longstreet continued serving in the U.S. Army until the Civil War.

Dan Paterson, great-grandson of the general, said he did not know whether Longstreet got the federal pension. Helen Dortch Longstreet, the general’s second wife, apparently did receive a stipend for his service in Mexico, Paterson said.

A pension card on Ancestry.com notes an 1887 application from the general for the "Mexican War" and another for Helen in 1904, after his death. James was married to his first wife, Maria Louisa, until her death in 1889.

James and Helen Longstreet in 1900 (courtesy of Dan Paterson)

“The pension was not something I recollect coming up in discussion when my grandmother was still around in the 70's when we were kids,” Paterson wrote in an email.

A search of the Georgia Archives shows Helen applied in 1937 – 33 years after the general’s death – for a pension from the state as a widow of a Confederate veteran. Helen, 69, indicated James had received a state pension while living in Gainesville.

A letter, in approving Helen’s pension request, said the general “performed actual military service as a Confederate soldier and was honorably separated from such service.”

The letter did not indicate what amount the widow would receive.

Helen Longstreet's pension request (click to enlarge, Georgia Archives)

Maria Lagonia, vice president of the Longstreet Society, said the group spent less than $1,000 to purchase the letter from a seller on eBay.

The individual “worked with us on the price because he felt (and so did we) that the James Longstreet Museum was a good safe home for the letter and because we could share it with our visitors.”

In 1885, when he wrote the letter, Longstreet was both famous and infamous in the South, depending on one’s point of view. He remained immensely popular with the Confederate veterans he once led. His most masterful moments during the Civil War were at Chickamauga, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg and Antietam.

The veteran of Indian wars and the Mexican-American War was devoted and loyal to Gen. Robert E. Lee, who leaned heavily on Longstreet and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The latter was killed at Chancellorsville only a few months before Gettysburg.

A cabal, which included former generals Jubal Early and John Gordon, claimed Longstreet stubbornly resisted Lee’s plans at Gettysburg, resulting in the loss of the July 1863 battle – and perhaps the war.

They said Lee’s “Old War Horse”, his principal subordinate, was insubordinate at Gettysburg. That he wouldn’t support the attacks. That he moved his 14,000 troops in a slow manner.

Longstreet’s supporters and some scholars counter this. Although Gettysburg may not have been his best effort, they say, the general fought effectively on Days 2 and 3. The veteran, however, earned enmity when he dared to criticize Lee’s actions at Gettysburg publicly, and he spent the rest of his life trying to restore his reputation.

Two years after war’s end, Longstreet said that he believed in reconciliation and black suffrage. His business in New Orleans began to fail after critics accused him of being a scalawag – a Southern white who supported Reconstruction.

After the war, Longstreet held several federal offices and was a friend of President Ulysses S. Grant and Dan Sickles, former foes on the battlefield. While living in Louisiana, Longstreet led a black militia against unruly white supremacists.

Old Piedmont Hotel in Gainesville is home to The Longstreet Society (Picket photo)

Southerners did not forget that affront or his Republican Party loyalties. While there is no evidence he was progressive on race, Longstreet thought giving blacks full citizenship and voting rights was the practical thing to do.

Besides defending himself, the aging warrior also contended with the effects of a grievous wound to his throat, the result of friendly fire during the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864.

Longstreet moved to Gainesville in the late 1870s. He bought the 120-acre farm near downtown and pruned muscadine vines on property that featured an old colonial-style home.

The home burned in April 1889, and the general’s wife, Maria Louisa, died in December. (photo at right, courtesy of Dan Paterson). The fire destroyed the home, Longstreet's uniform, sword, a sash given to him by J.E.B. Stuart, relics, papers and more.

He held other offices, wrote his memoirs, “From Manassas to Appomattox,” and ran a hotel, which today is the home of the Longstreet Society.

In 1897, The “Old War Horse” at age 76 married Helen, 34, at the Governor’s Mansion in Atlanta. “She would live until 1962, spending many of those years defending Longstreet against his many harsh critics,” the society says.

James Longstreet, 82, died in January 1904. He is buried at Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville.

Richard Pilcher, president of the Longstreet Society, said the organization has few items directly related to the general. Among the documents are those related to promotions and civilian and political appointments.

Lagonia said the society will display the pension request letter on special occasions. It is seeking donations to help with the purchase.

“We like to study Longstreet's non-military life as well as his military and political life. The letter was very personal and allowed us a glimpse into his thoughts and circumstances,” she wrote in an email.

The Atlanta Journal article about 1897 wedding (courtesy of Dan Paterson)

'Shoot him on the spot' letter that made Northerners rally around the flag is donated to Treasury Department

Click to enlarge (Treasury Department)

John Adams Dix was US treasury secretary for just two months, but in that time a short message he wrote got the attention of secessionists,  surprised his boss, President James Buchanan, and brought cheers across the North.

On January 29, 1861 – a few months before the Civil War began – Dix issued an order saying a Federal revenue cutter must not be allowed to fall into the hands of Southern sympathizers in New Orleans. He concluded the message with, “If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.”

While a telegram bearing the message was stopped in Alabama, word got out and the line became a rallying cry in the North during the war. A song was written in its honor and banners and coins carried Dix's command, according to The New York Times' Disunion blog.

Dix token (Wikipedia)

On Wednesday, the letter was donated by the National Collector’s Mint to the Treasury Department’s library. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin presided over a brief ceremony, according to media reports.

Dix was an Army veteran, politician and U.S. senator from New York before the war. During the conflict, he suppressed draft riots in New York in 1863 and helped arrange prisoner exchanges through the Dix-Hill Cartel. He served as New York governor in 1873 and 1874.

Today, he’s perhaps best-remembered for the letter he sent to treasury officers who were being harassed in New Orleans following the election of Abraham Lincoln.

Buchanan would soon be out of office and secessionist sentiment was growing across the South, and there were threats of seizure of federal property. Buchanan's administration was considered to be vacillating and divided.

Just two weeks after becoming treasury secretary, Dix issued his order. It came as he worked to keep other ships in Federal hands. The Revenue Cutter Service was a predecessor of the Coast Guard.

The Rebel-sympathizing captain of the cutter McClelland had refused to move his ship north, according to the Disunion blog, and Dix dashed off his correspondence:

“Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him a mutineer, and treat him accordingly. If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.”

Portrait of Dix (Treasury Department)

Dix later wrote that he didn’t tell Buchanan about the matter beforehand, fearing he would not allow the letter to be sent. The official told the president about the message a few days later while they were discussing the revenue cutters.

Dix described the order, and Buchanan questioned him about the “shoot him on the spot” line.

“Did you write that?”

“No, sir. I did not write it, but I telegraphed it.”

President Buchanan

Buchanan made no answer.

Dix later said the U.S. flag should never by hauled down by a foe, according to memoirs written by his son.

“I did not think, when I seized the nearest pen …. And wrote the order in as little time as it would take to read it, that I was doing anything specially worthy of remembrance.”

Despite the letter, the flag did come down on the McClelland and the ship eventually fell into Confederate hands.

Mnuchin expressed admiration for Dix's leadership at a "pivotal time" in U.S. history, the Associated Press reports.

'Do not forsake us': Letter written by a peeved Lincoln donated to presidential museum

Craig Schneeberger with letter (courtesy Abraham Lincoln PLM)

Recent gifts to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., celebrate two aspects of the rich story of our 16^th president – the passionate politician and a young boy lost in a book.

A few days ahead of Lincoln’s birthday, the library on Friday said an angry letter written to a colleague and a painting that shows the buckskin-clad Lincoln reading while taking a break from chopping wood were recently donated.

The oil on canvas art work, painted in the late 19^th century by William Morton Jackson Rice, will hang in the presidential library for the rest of the year. “The Young Abe Lincoln” is a gift of philanthropist Louis Moore Bacon, a press release said, and is 7 feet wide and nearly 5 feet tall.

According to the library, an auction house previously described the painting this way: “This Romantic view of Abe Lincoln exemplifies the spirit of the era. Here is the heroic figure: strong, pure and, as yet, unworried by the hardships of leading a country at war with itself.”

(click to enlarge)

The letter was donated by a Georgia descendant of Illinois politician Andrew McCormack, whose career included a stint as Springfield mayor. His name also has been spelled McCormick.

Lincoln was unhappy that McCormack and others in the “Long Nine” group, named for their height, wanted to give the state printer job to newspaper editor William Walters, a Democrat, rather than his choice, friend and Whig ally Simeon Francis.

Lincoln, showing his political skills and partisanship, wrote to the legislators, probably in January 1839. He signed the letter with only his last name, perhaps as a declaration of anger:

“I have just learned, with utter astonishment, that you have some notion of voting for Walters,” Lincoln wrote to McCormack. “This certainly can not be true. It can not be, that one so true, firm, and unwavering as you have ever been, can for a moment think of such a thing. What! Support that pet of all those who continually slander and abuse you, and labour, day and night, for your destruction. All our friends are ready to cut our throats about it.”

Lincoln's strong words notwithstanding, Walters won the vote.

The letter was passed down by McCormack’s descendants and was donated by Fred Schneeberger of Dunwoody, a suburb of Atlanta. His son, Craig, had visited the Springfield museum and suggested it go there.

"We just loved the museum up there," the younger Schneeberger told the Picket. The document had been passed down for seven generations, and there was no consideration of it being sold because it could be lost to any public access, he said. The first-born son of the next generation would receive it, but Craig's son thought it should be donated, and the idea went from there.

(Click to enlarge)

Schneeberger said the family doesn't mind that Lincoln took their ancestor and others to task. "I think it's just politics. Everyone gets nailed once in a while."

“Both these items are wonderful additions to our collection,” said Alan Lowe, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, in the release. “One shows the Lincoln that we sometimes forget – the politician trying to lead a team. The other shows Lincoln as we’d like to remember him – hardworking and never wasting an opportunity to improve himself.”

Full text of Lincoln letter

Dear Captain:

I have just learned, with utter astonishment, that you have some notion of voting for Walters.  This certainly can not be true.  It can not be, that one so true, firm, and unwavering as you have ever been, can for a moment think of such a thing.  What!  Support that pet of all those who continually slander and abuse you, and labour, day and night, for your destruction.  All our friends are ready to cut our throats about it.  An angel from heaven could not make them believe, that we do not connive at it.  For Heaven’s sake, for your friends sake, for the sake of the recollection of all the hard battles we have heretofore fought shoulder, to shoulder, do not forsake us this time.  We have been told for two or three days that you were in danger; but we gave it the lie whenever we heard it.  We were willing to bet our lives upon you.  Stand by us this time, and nothing in our power to confer, shall ever be denied you.  Surely!  Surely! You do not doubt my friendship for you.  If you do, what under Heaven can I do, to convince you.  Surely you will not think those who have been your revilers, better friends than I.  Read this & write what you will do.

Your friend,

Lincoln