CONFEDERATE TREASURY DEPARTMENT LETTER SETTLING THE PAY OF A DECEASED SOLDIER — PVT. DANIEL CLIFTON, CO. K, 50TH VIRGINIA INFANTRY, 1863

CONFEDERATE TREASURY DEPARTMENT LETTER SETTLING THE PAY OF A DECEASED SOLDIER — PVT. DANIEL CLIFTON, CO. K, 50TH VIRGINIA INFANTRY, 1863

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Item Code: 557-285

Manuscript letter signed, Treasury Department C.S.A., Second Auditor's Office, Richmond, May 7th 1863, addressed to Mr. Emanuel Clifton, Care of L. G. Rucker, Patrick Court House, Va. The letter was sent with the Confederate government's settlement certificate for the back pay of Clifton's son. One page on blue-ruled wove paper, blind-embossed papermaker's crest at upper left. Approximately 7 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches.

TEXT

"Sir / Enclosed you will find Certificate No 5248 for the sum of $66.80, being the amount found due Daniel Clifton deceased, private of Lawson's Co 'K' 50th Regt Va Vols for pay from June 22nd 1861, the date of his enlistment, to October 15th 1861, the date of his death inclusive 3 months + 24 days @ 11$ per month and 25$ commutation for 6 months clothing. The Certificate is payable to your order as father of said deceased. / Very Respectfully / Yr. Obt. Servt."

The letter is signed for W. H. S. Taylor, Auditor, by J. Calvert, Chief of the Division of Dead Soldiers. Calvert's signature is set within a bold hand-drawn oval flourish. A period endorsement at lower left records the claim being handed to John Staples for collection, June 8, [18]64, and "(Blackwell)" is written at the foot.

HISTORICAL NOTE

The Second Auditor's Office settled the accounts of Confederate soldiers who died in service. Pay, bounty and clothing allowances still owed to a dead soldier were paid out to his next of kin. This letter shows how the claim was worked out: eleven dollars a month for three months and twenty-four days of service, plus a flat twenty-five dollars in place of six months' clothing. Those two amounts total exactly the $66.80 certified. Daniel Clifton enlisted in June 1861 and died that October, only four months later. That was the first autumn of the war, when the 50th Virginia was serving in western Virginia and many new regiments lost more men to camp sickness than to battle. The letter does not state his cause of death. His father did not receive the money until May 1863, nearly two years after Daniel's death, and the endorsement shows the claim was still being collected a year after that. The letter is a good example of how long families waited on the Confederate bureaucracy.

CONDITION

Original folds, one with a short separation at the right edge. Light, even toning and a few small scattered spots. Ink strong and dark throughout, with the signatures bold. Very good.    [ss][ph:L]

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