Dated “Shelbyville [AL] June 28^th 1863.” Addressed to Captain R. P. Rowley. 2pp, in ink, on lined paper measuring 7.75 x9.75” Exhibits fold-marks, light yellowing & foxing & mounting stain along right margin. Else VG & entirely legible. In protective sleeve. Text:

“Dear Rowley…….While in Tullhoma I loaned to Genl Clayton, for the uses of a detail for making axe handles, 4 drawing knives, 4 axes, 1 chisel, 1 handsaw, 1 augur—to be returned. On the application  to him for them, he advses that he delievered them to you & holds your receipt for the same. Is it so, or has he confounded it with the tools turned over by force?

Please send me by Feorge enough of the gold cord for my jacket. Three bars for each collar… How are you getting on old fellow? & what are the chances for a little “Buckfoot” now that the army has moved away? If pretty good I’ll come down & spend a week with you. Tomorrow, I start all my stock, horses & mules to forage on you oats. Hope you have enough for all hands. If you get out of corn get a sack from Horbach & have charged to me./ In haste/ Your friend, J.M Witherspoon.”

In this whimsical letter from one Confederate engineering captain to another, J.M. Witherspoon inquires after tools he loaned to Gen. Henry D. Clayton [prominent at the Chickamauga & in retreat from the Battle of Nashville.], only to informed that they’d been sent to his friend Rowley and so on. Recipient  Rowley was a prominent engineer from Arkansas who would be promoted  Colonel and eventually be placed in charge of Confederate engineering operations in Trans-Mississippi Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. At the war’s end, he returned to Arkansas, residing on a Mississippi River  plantation in Lonoke County. His correspondent, the whimsical Captain Witherspoon, invites further research.

Fine collectible letter from the Confederate Corps of Engineers. Accompanied by very brief amount of internet research.

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