It doesn’t get any more historic than this!  This letter was written by Lamar Fontaine on May 18th, 1898 on his companies stationary “Office of Lamar Fontaine & Sons, Surveyors and Civil Engineers, Lyon, Cohoma Co., Miss.”  The purpose of the letter was to return a “relic” that Fontaine had obtained and sending it back to its proper relative in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  The great thing about this letter is that Fontaine writes a great story about an experience he had near Lancaster.  He was a prisoner being moved from Camp Chase, Ohio to Fort Delaware.  Fontaine was a 31 year old Civil Engineer who enlisted at Pensacola, Florida into Company A of the 10th Mississippi Infantry.  In the fall of 1861, he transferred into Company I of the 2nd Virginia Cavalry.  From then on, you would not believe his story!  The following is from THE CONFEDERATE MEDAL OF HONOR website:

In our letter, Lamar Fontaine tells a priceless story of “one of the ugliest” Confederate soldiers that he ever saw.  Read his entire letter, it’s hilarious!

                                                                                                                                                            May 18th, 1898

                        Marion J. Dieffenderfer

                        Cor. Mary St. & Harrisburg Ave.

                                                            Lancaster, Pa.

                                                                                    My dear Sir,

                                                                              Your favor of the 15th inst. came today and
I had many thoughts and memories awakened by the perusal of your grandfathers
“furlough” or pass; and the City of Lancaster, can never be effaced from my memory. 
As a very ludicrous scene or incident occurred there in the early days of 1864, as I was
passing through there enjoying a free ? ride with several hundred other Confederate
prisoners from Camp Chase, Ohio to Fort Delaware.  The day was very cold yet bright
and clear and the snow very deep.  The platform at the depot was crowded with people
to see the train load of Rebel prisoners go by.  I was sitting at a hole cut in a box car

just large enough to get your head through and by my side was a Tennessee Captain,
a curious specimen of humanity and one of the ugliest I ever saw.  His hair and beard
were extremely long and hung down almost to his belt, and each hair stood by itself
and was of a tawny red hue, his under jaw projected fully a half inch beyond the
upper and his forehead hung out over the balance of his features, and his nose turned
up like that of a pug dob and you could look down into his nostrils.  He was really a
hideous looking man, but kind and gentle as a woman yet brave and fearless as a wild
boy.  As we always called him “Jack of Clubs”, I do not remember his name. He was
sitting by my side as the train came to a halt near the platform.  The crowd was very
dense and a lad some 12 or 13 years old and his mother were not more than two or three
 feet from my face, as we stopped and this boy stooped down and tried to look past me
into the train and kept saying “Mama what do the Rebs look like?”  She would say
“Hush my son; they look just like our men only they wear gray uniforms.”  This did not
satisfy him at all, and he kept on asking the same question over and got as close to me
as he possible could trying to peep into the car.  Just at this Juncture of the game while
the lad was leaning over as far as he could holding on to his mother to keep from falling
“Jack of Clubs” showed me to one side and rammed his head through the hole almost into
the boys face and uttered a fearful growl.  The boy gave a tremendous spring backwards
& knocked his mother sprawling and her fall upset others and the cry was raised that
a rebel had got away.  I would give a $5.00 bill today to know what that boy thought a
“Rebel looked like”, as old Jack of Clubs shot his face into his.

            Not a great way from Lancaster on our way to Philadelphia.  I made my escape
through an enlargement of the same hold in the box car that we were peeping through. 
I dropped out of is just after passing a station I think called “Red Bird” and landed in a

snow bank that buried me out of sight.  And that night I “captured” a beautiful little
mare from a Pennsylvanian farmer and made my way via Edwards Ferry above

Leesburg on the Potomac and rejoined my command near “Mine Run” in Virginia and
she was shot and killed on the 8th of May 1864.

            From the above you see I have good cause to remember Lancaster, Pa.  I return
your relic your grandfathers furlough for I know it must be a sacred keepsake of the
“lang syne.”  I enclose you a mutilated copy of “All quiet along the Potomac” but the
corrections are all right.

                                                        With kind regards, I am very truly yours,

                                                                                                                                    Lamar Fontaine

                        P.S. I mailed this to you on the 18th inst. and I suppose that in the robbery of the P.O. 
                        here this letter was taken out and was found today May 31st without any envelope. 
                                                                                                                Ill remail it.

                                                                                                                            Very truly yours,

                                                                                                                                                            L. F.

Included with the letter is a copy of “All Quiet along the Potomac” that was printed in a newspaper, which he has signed and made corrections.   Be sure to read the Internet article on how “All Quiet along the Potomac” was written by Fontaine… it is fascinating!

Fontaine lived among the Comanche Indians for 13 years prior to the Civil War.  He was born in 1829 in Laberde Prairie, Texas and died at the age of 91 in Lyon, Mississippi. After the war he served in the U.S. Navy, was in the Crimean War and was a Texas Ranger!  

The letter is 3 pages, all on his business stationary and is written in nice, easily read ink and is in fine condition with a few minor stains and a couple small holes.  It displays beautifully!  This is one of the most fascinating and historic pieces from our collection that we are offering!  Lamar Fontaine had to be one of the most “colorful” Confederate soldiers… and his story is better than Davy Crockett or any other western hero! 

#S73 - Price $1,395