MUSEUM QUALITY
AMERICANA
This letter was taken from the personal papers of Governor Pickens
before Columbia was burned by Sherman on February 17th, 1865.
If was purchased by us at auction from a descendant of the family!
Writing from the “Executive Department, Charleston, South Carolina, December 24th, 1860” the personal Secretary of Governor Pickens, B. T. Watts, writes to Captain Samuel F. Butler, Officer in Command of the Mississippi Militia, who had offered to send military support to Charleston.
“Sir,
His Excellency Governor Pickens has received
through the Hon. Chancellor Dickinson the patriotic offer
of your Company to assist South Carolina in her present
emergency.
The Governor authorizes me to express to you his
thanks – and to assure you, that an offer, coming from the
State of Mississippi, a State identified with the Gallantry
of Monterey and Buena Vista & is properly appreciated –
but that he is not at liberty to accept the tender of service
formally. Should, however, an occasion occur, there is no
state in this Confederacy (as yet) that the Governor will
sooner look, to come to the rescue – than Mississippi.
Very Respectfully,
Your fellow citizen,
B. T. Watts
Secy.”
Written in nice dark ink with some staining, overall fine condition. A wonderful piece of early Confederate Charleston history!
#HC53 - Price $350 Cropped to view:

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