www.sethkaller.com Open in urlscan Pro
216.92.116.197  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

SETH KALLER, INC.


INSPIRED BY HISTORY

 * Home
 * About Us
   * About Seth Kaller, Inc.
   * Guarantee
   * Press Coverage
   * Publications
   * Exhibitions
     
   * History Articles
   * Terminology
   * Accessibility
     
   
 * Available Treasures
   * Abraham Lincoln
   * African American History
   * Albert Einstein
   * Alexander Hamilton
   * Books
   * Civil War and Reconstruction
   * Constitution and Bill of Rights
   * Declaration of Independence
   * Early Republic (1784 - c.1830)
   * Finance, Stocks, and Bonds
   * George Washington
   * Gettysburg
   * Gilded Age (1876 - c.1900)
   * Great Gifts
   * Inauguration and State of the Union Addresses
   * Israel and Judaica
   * Maps
   * Pennsylvania
   * Presidents and Elections
   * Prints
   * Revolution and Founding Fathers (1765 - 1784)
   * Science, Technology, and Transportation
   * Thomas Jefferson
   * War of 1812
   * Women's History and First Ladies
   * World War I and II
 * Freedom Documents
   * Declaration of Independence
   * Constitution
   * Emancipation Proclamation
   * The 13th Amendment
   * Gettysburg Address
   * George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation
   * George Washington vs Bigotry
   * Declaration of Sentiments
   * Is it Real?
   
   

 * Log In




OTHER CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION OFFERINGS

 * Frederick Douglass Celebrates His Return to America a Free Man, and Reunion
   with His Family, While Telling of His Treatment During the Voyage
 * Very Early State Department Printing of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
   and William Seward’s Cover Letter, Sent to American Minister in Argentina
 * Abraham Lincoln Introduces Ulysses S. Grant’s Superintendent of Freed Slaves
   to the American Freedmen’s Inquiry Commission

More...

 * Monumental Lincoln Deathbed Oil Painting by James Burns, 1866
 * Rare Houston Texas Newspapers: the Juneteenth Order Freeing Slaves, Lincoln’s
   Emancipation Proclamation, and Much More
 * George F. Root’s Autograph Sheet Music for “The Battle-Cry of Freedom!”
 * Civil War “The Union Forever” Flag Made by Philadelphia Sailmaker, ca. 1861
 * Grant’s Infamous General Order 11 Expelling Jews—and Lincoln’s Revocation of
   it
 * Great Report on the Hunt for Lincoln’s Assassin and Claim for Reward by Irish
   War Hero
 * South Carolina’s Reconstruction Governor’s Copy of Reconstruction Acts,
   Including Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment
 * A Union Officer’s Commission, and Field Report from
   the 17th Connecticut Regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg
 * An Eloquent Farewell to His Troops from a Massachusetts General Who Marched
   to the Sea with Sherman and Fought in the Civil War’s Last Battle
 * The Gettysburg Address – New York Semi-Weekly Tribune First Day of Printing
 * Miscegenation, or the Millennium of Abolitionism – Stirring Fear of
   Interracial Marriage Before 1864 Presidential Election
 * Vibrant Print of Fifteenth Amendment Celebrations
 * “STAND BY THE LAW!” Working Class Arguments for Peace in New York City in
   Wake of Draft Riots
 * The Dreadful Dred Scott Decision, First Edition with Added Illustrations
 * 1865 General Orders,
   Including Many Regarding Lincoln’s Assassination
 * The Gettysburg Address – November 20, 1863 Rare First Day Printing by
   “Lincoln’s Dog” John Forney in the Philadelphia Press
 * Hand-Made Union Patriotic and Religious Song Book
 * Report of Attacks on Forts Walker and Beauregard
 * “Separating the Loyal from the Disloyal”
   in Reconstruction North Carolina
 * Campaign Document Uses Civil War’s Costs Against President Johnson
 * First Federal Occupation of Winchester Broadside
 * Beauregard’s Thanks for Donation for
   “our gallant soldiers now battling manfully for our rights & our
   Independence…”
 * On the Day He was Promoted to Rear Admiral, Farragut Writes from His Flagship
   During the Bombardment of Vicksburg, Mississippi
 * Autograph Book Kept by a Jewish Former U.S. and Future Confederate Naval
   Officer Imprisoned at Fort Warren, Signed by Dozens of Fellow Political and
   Military Prisoners
 * Edwin Stanton ALS Prelude to Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
 * Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase
   Insists on Proper Funding for Soldiers
 * Currier & Ives Cartoon Mocks Stephen Douglas for Campaigning in 1860
 * Prang & Co. Broadside with Maps of Early Civil War Hotspots
 * “Black bellied Yankees” at The Battle of Fort Blakely
 * A Day After Grant’s Capture of Fort Henry, Confederate General Lovell Weakens
   New Orleans in a Futile Attempt to Shore Up Fort Donelson
 * Scathingly Anti-British Broadside Heralds Daniel Webster
 * “Copperheads Vigorously Prosecuting Peace: Is it the Peace YOU Want?”
 * Abraham Lincoln: Large 1861 Inauguration Chromolithograph
 * Saving Free-Born African American from Life of Slavery
 * Celebrating a Report of McClellan’s Death
 * Confederate Governor of Kentucky Seeks Prominent Louisville Editor’s Support
   for Secession in the Summer of 1861
 * A Huge Print of the Great Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison
 * Civil War Hero David Dixon Porter Expresses Support for the Chinese in a Time
   of Hostility
 * Illustrator Frank Leslie Publishes Fanciful Grand Reception of Civil War
   Notables as a Subscription Premium
 * President Andrew Johnson’s Copy of “New-York Daily Tribune” Detailing
   Proposed Regulations for Alaska
 * South Carolina Impressment Agent Negotiates With General Beauregard for the
   Release of Slaves to their Masters
 * Congressmen Who Signed Thirteenth Amendment Abolishing Slavery
 * On the Day of the First Battle of Bull Run,
   Confederate Ordnance Chief Josiah Gorgas Orders
   Equipment for 100,000 Troops
 * Unique Sea Mosses Book Sold at the New York Metropolitan Fair to Benefit Sick
   and Wounded Union Troops
 * 161 Young Men of Providence, R.I. Found “Loyal League” Pledged to Support the
   Union
 * Fourth of July Oration from Massachusetts on Eve of the Civil War
 * Opposing the Confederate Draft
 * Slavery Divides New York Legislature in 1844
 * A Copperhead Newspaper Prints, Then Criticizes,
   the Emancipation Proclamation
 * Lincoln and Congressmen Who Signed Thirteenth Amendment Abolishing Slavery
 * Senator Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana 1859 speech supporting acquisition of
   Cuba
 * New York Times Carriers’ Address Reviews the Year 1863 in Bad Verse,
   Including Freeing of Russia’s Serfs, and the Battle of Gettysburg
 * “I thought Cump would advise you as to the movements here…”
 * A Fighting Vermont Regiment Summary of Actions after Gettysburg, July 5-13,
   1863
 * A Map of the Baruch College Area of New York City
 * Senator Sprague of Rhode Island Writes About Fascinating Debates in Congress
   Involving Freedom for the Families of African American Recruits and the
   Limits of Free Speech in the Senate
 * The Defense in Ex parte Milligan Argues That Even During War the Federal
   Government Can’t Use Military Trials Where Civilian Courts Are Operative
 * “The Christian Banner” – Pro-Confederate Paper From Union-Occupied
   Fredericksburg
 * The Drafter of the 14th Amendment Quotes
   Abolitionist Congressman Thaddeus Stevens
 * Union Volunteers Refreshment Saloon
 * Admiral Porter Reluctantly Turns Down General Sherman’s Invitation to a
   “Grand Reunion” in Chicago; and Sherman Reads These Excerpts to the Veterans
 * Returning the Western World to Blockade Duty to Squeeze the Confederacy
 * Prior to 1864 presidential election, McClellan’s former groomsman tries to
   even the field
 * Congressmen Order Copies of Senator Jacob Collamer’s Speech on Bleeding
   Kansas
 * Requesting Another Battery of Artillery During the Siege of Yorktown
 * Clothing the 1st Vermont Cavalry in the Civil War
 * The Nation Mourns
 * The Success of Black Troops At Petersburg, Virginia, Under Butler
 * “The Excursion of the Bought Nominations”
   Showing Balloon “Union League”
 * “The Slave Sale, or Come Who Bids?” Abolitionist Sheet Music
 * Lincoln’s Vice President Talks Local Politics
 * Ohio Reformers Use Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion
   to Justify Their Own Behavior
 * “Black Republican” Salt River Ticket
 * Responding to Grant’s Postwar Request for a Report of Guns Captured at Fort
   Donelson, His First Success
 * 1864 Campaign Blames McClellan’s Failures on Lincoln, Comparing the
   President’s Treatment of McClellan and Grant
 * Creating Two New Civil War Military Departments
 * Naval Commander Who Prevented Filibustering Expedition against Mexico, and
   Then Captured Slave Ships and Freed over 1,350 Slaves
 * Future Hero of Little Round Top Advises a Friend on Getting a Leave of
   Absence
 * Civil War Veteran in Maryland Predicts the War Will End Soon
 * Patriotic Poem by Gov. John A. Andrew
 * A Georgia Man Writes from Frederic City, Maryland, Hoping to Liberate Some
   ‘greenies’ from the “Hamites or the ‘freedmen’” Celebrating Passage of the
   “dirty 15th Amendment”
 * A New York Soldier’s Affidavit Allowing
   a Proxy to Vote in the 1864 Election
 * Civil War Song Sheet: When Johnny Comes Marching Home
 * Illinois Governor Richard Yates’ Fourth of July Address at the End of Civil
   War – Unhappy that the Nation Would not Execute Jefferson Davis
 * Rebel Deserters Coming within the Union Lines
 * Advertisement for Temperance Restaurant in New York City
 * Evacuating Elizabeth City and Leaving Nothing for the Rebels, to the Dismay
   of Freedpeople and Unionists
 * Seesaw - Gloucester, MA - Drawn by Winslow Homer
 * Edwin M. Stanton Portrait, Based on a Photograph by Matthew Brady
 * The Army of the Potomac Arriving at Yorktown from Williamsburg
 * The Massacre at Fort Pillow
 * Unusual Caricatures of Southern Aristocrats by Union Soldier on Letter to
   Parents
 * Board of Engineers to Review Sea Coast Fortifications, Including New York
 * Lincoln, the War, and Emancipation
 * Lincoln Reviews the Army of the Potomac

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


OTHER GREAT GIFTS OFFERINGS

 * Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech – Inscribed and Signed by
   FDR – in the “Missy” LeHand Archive
 * Martin Luther King Jr. Inscribes Stride Toward Freedom to Pioneer Civil
   Rights Leader A. Philip Randolph
 * Thomas Jefferson Signed Act of Congress Authorizing Copper Coinage (the First
   Legal Tender Produced by U.S. Government)

More...

 * The Building Blocks of Albert Einstein’s Creative Mind
 * Abraham Lincoln Signed Check to “William Johnson (Colored)”—Who Accompanied
   the President to Antietam and Gettysburg
 * FDR’s First Inaugural Address in the Midst of the Great Depression
 * Albert Einstein by Marc Mellon
 * President Harry S. Truman Signs Potsdam Declaration Demanding Japanese
   Surrender for Himself, Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek
 * Alexander Hamilton’s Initial Steps to Create a National Banking System
 * Earliest Known Printing of “Tikvatenu” [Our Hope – the origin of “Hatikvah”]
   Inscribed by Author Naftali Herz Imber to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the “revivalist
   of the Hebrew language”
 * Winston Churchill by Marc Mellon
 * George Washington Signed Military Commission, Preparing for a Decisive
   Victory Against Native Americans and the British in the Midwest
 * George Washington’s First Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation
 * George F. Root’s Autograph Sheet Music for “The Battle-Cry of Freedom!”
 * President Kennedy Sends a Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute to Civil Rights
   Leader A. Philip Randolph
 * Continental Congress Declares Independence – on July 2, 1776
 * For Washington, Hamilton Confirms Receipt of Hessian Troop Movement
   Intelligence
 * Thomas Jefferson Transmits the First Patent Act to Governor of New York
   George Clinton, Who Later Replaced Aaron Burr as Jefferson’s Vice President
 * Georgia O’Keeffe’s Folding Safari Chair (or “Bunch of Sticks” She Used for
   Painting in the Desert) and Archive of 18 Autograph and Typed Letters Signed
   by O’Keeffe to Artist Marilyn Thuma
 * The Only Known Document in Hamilton’s Hand on a Legal Case Involving James
   Reynolds
 * Rare Important Declaration of Independence Linen Handkerchief
 * Unique Inscribed Set of John Marshall’s Life of George Washington, With
   Joseph Story Letter to the Daughter of the Late Associate Justice Henry
   Brockholst Livingston, Conveying Marshall’s Thanks and Noting That He Will Be
   Sending to Her These Very Books
 * President Woodrow Wilson Asks Congress for a Declaration of War
 * President Wilson Urges Americans to Support the “Stricken Jewish People” of
   Europe During World War I
 * Alexander Hamilton Writes to His Beloved Wife, Eliza, About the Deteriorating
   Health of Her Younger Sister, Peggy
 * Civil War “The Union Forever” Flag Made by Philadelphia Sailmaker, ca. 1861
 * Lyndon B. Johnson Signing Pen for Voting Rights Act of 1965
 * Hamilton LS to Bank of New York Advising That Collectors Will No Longer
   Receive Its Notes
 * Alexander Hamilton Signed Registration for Schooner Robert of Baltimore
 * Hamilton Serves as Surety for Loan to Fellow Attorney and Second in His Duel
   with Burr
 * Early Printing of the U.S. Constitution, in American Museum—One of the First
   Two Magazine Printings of the Constitution
 * George Washington’s Famous Letter to American Roman Catholics: A Message of
   Thankfulness, Patriotism, and Inclusiveness
 * Thomas Jefferson Pays Import Duty on Famous Louis Chantrot Obelisk Clock
 * George Washington: Rare 1777 Revolutionary War Hand Colored Engraving
 * Major General Alexander Hamilton Message to Father of American Viticulture
   During Quasi-War with France
 * Theodore Roosevelt, Furious with Cuba's "Pointless" 1906 Revolution
 * Harry S. Truman on His 1948 Proclamation Recognizing Israel
 * A Week After Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK Asks Treasury Secretary Dillon About
   the Possibility of a Run on Gold if the Crisis Had Lasted Longer or Involved
   a Total Blockade
 * Two months Before Declaring Israel’s Independence, Ben-Gurion Counters
   American Backpedaling and Pushes to Start the Temporary Government
 * Amelia Earhart and Richard E. Byrd—Aviation Pioneers in Signed Group Photo
 * Aviation Pioneer Amelia Earhart Returns from European Tour with Publisher
   Husband
 * Masonic Documents: James P. Kimball archive of master Mason, geologist, and
   Director of the United States Mint - with superb engravings
 * Brown University Holds First Commencement in 1769 - as Rhode Island College
 * FDR’s Personal Copy of 1934 Textile Industry Crisis Board Report
   Countersigned by Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins, the First Woman
   Presidential Cabinet Member
 * David Ben-Gurion ALS—Preventing a War between the Religious and the Secular
   in Early Israel
 * Debating the Bill of Rights Amendments in 1789
 * The Gettysburg Address – New York Semi-Weekly Tribune First Day of Printing
 * The Second Naturalization Act - Establishing Laws for Citizenship
 * President John Quincy Adams’ Remarks & Toast Commemorating William Penn’s
   Landing
 * Connecticut Governor’s Proclamation Calling for a Day of Thanksgiving to
   Commemorate the Defeat of the French in Canada, and the Taking of Quebec
 * Vibrant Print of Fifteenth Amendment Celebrations
 * President Jefferson Sends, Rather than Delivers, His First State of the Union
 * 1915 Women’s Suffrage Poster
 * Jackie Robinson says a talk radio host “needs to do a lot of soul searching.”
 * Whig Presidential Nominee William Henry Harrison to Daniel Webster
 * “George Washington” - Keith Carter Photograph
 * 1778 Muster List, Including Rejected African American Recruit
 * Large 1801 Folio Engraving of Thomas Jefferson as New President
 * Nine Months of a Hawaiian Missionary Newspaper, With the First Report of King
   Kamehameha III’s Death and Perry’s Mission to Japan
 * Ben-Gurion to Moshe Sharett on Sharett’s Resignation as Foreign Minister
 * Acquittal of Printer John Peter Zenger in Colonial New York Establishes
   Foundation for American Freedom of the Press
 * Prang & Co. Broadside with Maps of Early Civil War Hotspots
 * President Theodore Roosevelt Questions Coal Monopolies and Contradictions in
   Report from Interstate Commerce Chairman
 * Rare 1870 Yale University Summer Boat Races Broadside
 * Susan B. Anthony Plaster Relief Medallion Copyrighted by Her Sister
 * Arthur Ashe’s United Negro College Fund Benefit Silver Bowl Trophy
 * Golda Meir Stresses the Need to Settle New Immigrants
 * “John Bull and the Baltimoreans” Lampooning British Defeat at Fort McHenry in
   Baltimore Following their Earlier Success at Alexandria
 * President Washington Approves Establishment of Mint and Issues First Veto
 * Ben-Gurion Attempts to Convince the Israeli Government to Attack Jordan,
   After Jordan Violated the Cease-fire Ending the Six Day War
 * Boston Newspaper Publishes Former Governor Hutchinson’s Letters
 * Bronze Bas Relief Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt: “Aggressive fighting for
   the right is the greatest sport the world affords”
 * Inventor Thomas A. Edison Responds to His Son’s Note About a Speaking Request
 * Golda Meir Invites an American Semiconductor Pioneer to an Israeli Economic
   Conference
 * Madison’s Optimistic First Message to Congress: A Prelude to the War of 1812
 * Adams Defends U.S. Constitution, First French Edition
 * Early Printing of a Bill to Establish the Treasury Department
 * FDR Signed Engraving of White House Bound in The Democratic Book 1936
 * Harry Hines Woodring Political Archives and Related Material
 * Congressmen Who Signed Thirteenth Amendment Abolishing Slavery
 * Anticipating Prohibition Repeal
 * Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Doll
 * Eleanor Roosevelt Asks Pennsylvania Educator to Serve as Chair of Local
   Women’s Crusade
 * Ben-Gurion Calls for a Jerusalem Home for the Bible Society: “every spiritual
   idea, for it to exist and exert influence, needs a physical structure, too, a
   central home…”
 * Lucy Stone Thanks Suffragist Who Later Led Effort for Women’s Suffrage in
   Hawaii for Donation
 * A Ruff-Necked Hummingbird by Audubon
 * Masonic Apron, Neck Sash & Medal of U.S. Mint - California Gold Refiner James
   Booth, with a Lithograph of Him
 * N.Y. “Sons of Freedom” Pull Down Statue of King George III
 * Calvin Coolidge Appoints Trustee of the National Training School for Girls
 * Harvard’s 1791 Graduating Students and Theses, Dedicated to Governor John
   Hancock and Lieutenant Governor Samuel Adams
 * Honoring Washington and Quoting His Farewell Address (Drafted by Hamilton)
 * Pennsylvania Deputy Governor Urges General Assembly to Resist French
   Expansion in North America in Early Stages of the French and Indian War
 * Lucy Stone Promotes Bazaar to Suffragist Who Later Led Effort for Women’s
   Suffrage in Hawaii
 * New York Times Carriers’ Address Reviews the Year 1863 in Bad Verse,
   Including Freeing of Russia’s Serfs, and the Battle of Gettysburg
 * Eleanor Roosevelt Thanks Former State Senator for Article to Assist Women in
   Monitoring Polling Places
 * Hillary Clinton Thanks Doctor for Policy Change to Allow Fathers to Be in
   Delivery Room for Caesarean Sections
 * John Marshall’s “Life of George Washington”
   and Companion Atlas with Hand-colored Maps
 * President Franklin D. Roosevelt Thanks for a “Heartening” Telegram Received
   September 27, While FDR was Trying to Prevent Hitler from Starting War
 * Rich 1845 Letter on the State of American Art to Hudson River Artist Jasper
   Cropsey
 * Senator Sprague of Rhode Island Writes About Fascinating Debates in Congress
   Involving Freedom for the Families of African American Recruits and the
   Limits of Free Speech in the Senate
 * Gerald Ford Defends His Early Commitment to Civil Rights
 * Picasso Anti-War Image Used to Promote Vietnam War Protest
 * 16 x 20 Inch Photograph of St. Augustine, Florida, African American Cart
   Driver
 * Future Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo: “I am alone in the world now.”
 * Anthony C. McAuliffe Writes Amidst Tests of Atomic Bombs at Bikini Atoll in
   1946
 * Hoover Tells a Key Aide that Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping Occupies FBI in New
   York
 * Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper’s Signed “Bioscience Data Plan” for
   Conducting Vital Biomedical Research on the Impact of Space Flight on the
   Human Body
 * Ohio Reformers Use Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion
   to Justify Their Own Behavior
 * 1790 Massachusetts Newspaper Discussing Nantucket Whalers
 * Elmer W. Henderson – Who Defeated Railroad Dining Car Segregation –
   Congratulates African American Inventor for American Institute of Chemists
   Award
 * Mark Hopkins, Famed Educator and the Longest Serving President of Williams
   College, Preparing to Lecture at the Smithsonian Institute
 * Future Hero of Little Round Top Advises a Friend on Getting a Leave of
   Absence
 * A Harlequin Duck by Audubon
 * Alex Haley Signed Check
 * New England Factory Life
 * Rebel Deserters Coming within the Union Lines
 * Advertisement for Temperance Restaurant in New York City
 * Seesaw - Gloucester, MA - Drawn by Winslow Homer
 * The Statue of Liberty
 * Christmas Presents
 * Edwin M. Stanton Portrait, Based on a Photograph by Matthew Brady
 * The Army of the Potomac Arriving at Yorktown from Williamsburg
 * (On Hold) The U.S. Constitution – Very Rare Printing on the Second Day of
   Publication

J.E.B. Stuart Writes to Legendary Confederate Spy Laura Ratcliffe

Click to enlarge:
Select an image:





Full of braggadocio, Confederate cavalryman J.E.B. Stuart gives early mistaken
reports of the Battle of Shiloh to an informant, the famous Confederate spy
Laura Ratcliffe.“We are here quietly waiting for the yankees and if they ever
come we will send them howling.”

J.E.B. STUART. Autograph Letter Signed “S”, to Laura Ratcliffe. April 8, 1862. 3
pp., 3⅞ x 6 in.



Inventory #27574       Price: $7,800

Add to Cart Ask About This Item Add to Favorites

Complete Transcript

                                                            Rappahannock April 8
1862

My Dear Laura –

            We are here quietly waiting for the yankees and if they ever come we
will send them howling – through Fairfax again. We have won a glorious victory
in New Mexico, capturing the whole Federal command 5000 – under Genl Canby. We
have also won a glorious victory near Corinth on the Tenn. Captured 3 genls
Smith McClernand & Prentiss, & six thousand prisoners, all [2]their artillery &
camp equipage & rumor says we are sure to bag the remainder who are in full
retreat, A.S. Johnston was killed. Beauregard & Bragg were there –

            I have thought of you much, & hope soon to see you all again. Before
another week we expect to win another glorious victory.

            Hurrah! Hurrah!! I wish I could see you read this --  [3]

            My regard to your folks – The bullet-proof is all right. Yours ever
truly

                                                         S__

[envelope:] Miss Laura Ratcliffe / Beauty’s Bower
                                                     

Historical Background 
Laura Ratcliffe lived in Fairfax, Virginia, and her home was sometimes used as
headquarters by the ranger John Singleton Mosby. Ratcliffe used to hide messages
and money for Mosby, and once hid him from a search party of Federal troops.
Among other Confederate officers to whom she offered various types of support
was J.E.B. Stuart, who corresponded with her and occasionally even sent her
poetry.

Stuart rapturously recounts a recent series of Confederate victories and
anticipates others. “We are here quietly waiting for the Yankees and if they
ever come we will send them howling through Fairfax again.” Apparently dependent
on early newspaper reports, Stuart is mistaken about the Battle “near Corinth.”
On April 4 and 5, 1862, after near-victory on the first day, General Albert S.
Johnston’s Army of Tennessee was defeated by Ulysses Grant at the Battle of
Shiloh. Stuart was correct in noting, however, that Johnston was killed at this
battle.

The envelope for the letter bears the engraved address of “Head Quarters Cavalry
Brigade, Army of the Potomac.” The Confederate Army of the Potomac was commanded
by P.G.T. Beauregard, but in June 1862 it was renamed as the First Corps of the
Army of Northern Virginia when Robert E. Lee assumed command. Beauregard had
been sent west to be second-in-command to Albert Johnston, and led the Army of
Tennessee on the second day of Shiloh. Stuart’s cavalry was soon transferred
from north central Virginia (this letter is dated “Rappahannock”) to the
Peninsula, where Union General George McClellan had landed his Army of the
Potomac in an attempt to advance on Richmond from the southeast with the help of
Union Navy transport vessels.

Laura Ratcliffe (1836-1923) was a legendary Confederate spy who operated a safe
house in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. She met
cavalrymen J.E.B. Stuart and John S. Mosby early in the war, when she and her
sister were nursing wounded soldiers, and soon began providing information on
Union troop activity as the Confederate Army was forced south. In 1862 and 1863,
when Stuart commanded Robert E. Lee’s entire cavalry corps, he made several
raids on the Fairfax County area, often visiting Laura at her home. In the
winter of 1862, Mosby was granted permission to stay with Ratcliffe and nine
soldiers. There was a rock at the top of Squirrel Hill on her property where she
would leave messages for Mosby or Stuart. She was never charged with a crime.

James Ewell Brown (“Jeb”) Stuart (1833-1864) was the most famous Confederate
cavalryman and one of General Lee’s principal lieutenants in the Army of
Northern Virginia. A Virginian, he graduated from West Point in 1854 and gained
useful experience before the war in the 1st Cavalry Regiment on the Kansas
frontier. In 1861 he entered Confederate service as colonel of the 1st Virginia
Cavalry. He was promoted to brigadier general after distinguished service at
First Manassas, and earned lasting fame in June 1862 by riding completely around
General McClellan’s army on the Virginia Peninsula. After the Seven Days’ he was
promoted to major general and command of the Cavalry Division (later Corps) of
Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He performed brilliantly at Second Manassas,
Antietam, and Fredericksburg, and took temporary command of the Second Infantry
Corps at Chancellorsville upon the mortal wounding of Stonewall Jackson. The
major blemish on his reputation was his failure to arrive at the battlefield of
Gettysburg until the evening of the second day’s combat. At the beginning of the
Overland Campaign in 1864, Stuart himself was mortally wounded fighting off a
vigorous attack by Philip Sheridan’s improved Federal cavalry at the Battle of
Yellow Tavern, outside Richmond.


        Add to Cart Ask About This Item Add to Favorites

 


© 2024 Seth Kaller, Inc. • Historical Documents • Legacy Collections   Telephone
(914) 289-1776   E-mail: info@sethkaller.com   Accessibility

ShareThis Copy and Paste