Pre-printed leave-of-absence form with “Head-Quarters Army of Tennessee” letterhead. Dated “Dalton Georgia/ January 27^th 1864. Special Orders No. 27 IIII.” 2 pp., light blue paper, 9.75 x 7.625”. Exhibit fold-marks and light mount attachment stain along right margin. Else VG, and entirely legible. In protective sleeve.

Text: “Leave of absence is granted to the following Officers for the period set opposite their respective names: Capt. R. P. Rowley. Engineer 20 days…..By command of GENERAL JOHNSTON/ [signed] Kinloch Falconer, A.A.G./ Capt. R. P. Rowley/ Engineer/ Thro Brig. Genl. Leadbetter/ Chief Engineer.” Reverse endorsement: “Relieved from Duty/ D. Leadbetter/ Chf. Engr., off.”

Danville Leadbetter was a Maine native an a 1836 West Point graduate who acquired southern sympathies while serving in a number of pre-war engineering billets, which included fort construction in Mobile, AL. Leadbetter resigned his army commission in 1857 to accept appointment as Chief Engineer of Alabama. Commissioned Brigadier General in the Confederate Army in 1862, he superintended the erection of Mobile defenses and laid out Bragg’s lines at Chattanooga. At the war’s end Leadbetter fled the country, possibly to Mexico, but eventually to Grifton, Canada, where he died, Sept. 26, 1866, later re-interred at Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, AL. Leadbetter’s flight to Canada was obviously prompted by the fear of a former Maine native such as himself being tried as a traitor for having thrown his lot with the Confederacy.

Kinloch Falconer was a 22 year newspaper editor who enlisted as a private in the 8^th Mississippi Infantry, and was later commissioned into field & staff of the CS Adjutant General’s Dept, eventually promoted to Major. At the war’s end he returned home to Holly Springs, MS., and is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery.

R.P. Rowley was an Arkansas Engineer who worked for pre-war Arkansas Governor Conway before enlisting in the Confederate army and receiving a Lieutenant’s commission in the Corps of Engineers. Serving with various commands, Rowley eventually was promoted to Colonel and ended the war in the Trans-Mississippi, super-intending the Confederate engineering projects in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. After which he returned to Arkansas, and resided on a Mississippi River plantation in Lonoke County, where he died in 1899.

A choice Confederate document with its Army of Tennessee letterhead and an endorsement by the army’s Brigadier General chief engineer. Documentation included.

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