Unpublished Civil War Letter by Abraham Lincoln Discovered and Sold in Pennsylvania

A letter written by President Abraham Lincoln that offers a glimpse into early Civil War thinking has sold for $85,000 in Pennsylvania this week, according to sign dealers.

The previously unpublished letter had been in the same private collection for at least a century before it was obtained earlier this year, said school principal Nathan Raab. raab collectionbuys and sells historic autographs, documents and signed letters.

“It’s becoming increasingly rare to find unpublished and unknown letters from Abraham Lincoln,” Raab said in the paper. statement Documents on the Pennsylvania Collection website. Raab said the letter, which measures 5 by 8 inches, was sold Wednesday to a private collector in the southeastern United States.

This short letter, dated August 19, 1861, was addressed to American civil engineer and Union Colonel Charles Ellett, Jr., who met with the President and urged him to create a Corps of Engineers. Be a person. Colonel Ellett urged immediate action to understand the infrastructure of the South because Washington felt vulnerable.

“We know that Lincoln is working to document the infrastructure of the South and use that information to benefit the Union military and protect Washington,” Raab said Wednesday.

Raab said the documents showed the 16th president serving as commander-in-chief during the early months of the Civil War, which began in 1861 and ended in 1865.

He added that Colonel Ellett was a “very famous engineer” and that his letters to Lincoln were digitized by the Library of Congress.

In a letter, Lincoln instructed Colonel Ellet to discuss the corps’ problems with the generals. Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan and James Totten were all major figures in the war, Raab said.

“You are proposing to recruit a Corps of Civil Engineers for the service of the United States,” President Lincoln said at the beginning of a letter addressed to him from the White House, called the “Presidential Office.”

Lincoln went on to say: “I am incapable of judging the value of such a legion. But I would be more than happy to accept the approval of Generals Scott, McClellan, and Totten. I would love to see them and hear their opinions.” please listen.”

Lincoln signed the letter, followed by his name, “Really.”

Raab said, “I know from Ellett’s next letter to Lincoln that he sent this very letter to McClellan. McClellan refused to meet despite orders from the president, namely physical evidence. I did,” he said.

However, Colonel Ellett’s proposal was ignored by the Union, and on March 9, 1862, the Confederate ram Merrimack destroyed a fleet of Union boats at the Battle of Hampton Roads.

Overall, the letter “fills in some of the missing historical records,” Raab said.

Presidential artifacts are in high demand among collectors. Historical importance often has a big impact on price points.rare copy of declaration of liberation Sold for over $2 million in New York City in 2012.

Vague interests can also be a factor. A strand of Lincoln’s hair wrapped in a bloody telegram announcing the assassination, Selling for $81,000 in 2020. Another strand of his hair, in 2012 in Dallas he sold for $38,837.

President Lincoln’s letter requesting the postmaster’s resignation before the 1864 election. It sold for $115,000 last yearA one-sentence memo calling for a cabinet meeting Sold for $43,125.

“Abraham Lincoln is very popular with manuscript collectors, and anything written at the White House or in the Executive Office is pretty special,” said executive vice president of Boston-based RR Auctions. Bobby Livingston says.

New letters written by President Lincoln are discovered every few years, but history says that the letter to Colonel Ellet was important because it demonstrated the president’s efforts to balance engineering, military, and political demands. said James Cornelius, editor of the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln at home. Association.

Lincoln historian Harold Holzer called the letter esoteric but important.

“In the early months of the Civil War, his prescient concern for the safety of Ellett and Washington, D.C., had long been known, but he never let his subordinates decide how to resolve such important issues. Little is known about Lincoln’s almost haphazard willingness to try, while he was still trying to educate himself in military tactics and strategy,” Holzer said in an email.

Raab said on Friday that the letter to Colonel Ellett was sold within hours of being put up for sale.

“The content was not part of the collected work, so that added to the excitement,” he said. “There is also an intangible element that has never been on the general market before, so this is the first time a living collector has had the opportunity to own one today.”