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J. E. B. Stuart

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
J. E. B. Stuart

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Auction Date:2014 Feb 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Manuscript DS, signed “J. E. B. Stuart, 1st Lt. R.Q.M., 1st Cav,” one page both sides, 7.75 x 11.75, May 29, 1856. Agreement reads, in part: “Articles of Agreement made…between Lieutenant James E.B. Stuart 1st Cavalry Assistant Commissary of Subsistence in the service of the United States of America of the one part and R.M.C. Gartin of Liberty in Clay County in the State of Missouri of the other part…That the said R.M.C. Gartin should deliver at Fort Leavenworth K.T. fresh Beef of a good and wholesome quality in quarters with an equal proportion of each (necks and shanks to be excluded) in such quantities as may be from time to time required for the Troops and employees and as often as the Commanding Officer may order at least twice a week, on such days as shall be designated by the Assistant Commissary of Subsistence…The said R.M.C. Gartin shall receive four cents and seventy three hundredths per pound for every pound of Fresh Beef delivered and accepted under this contract…Payment shall be made monthly for the Amount of Fresh Beef furnished under this Contract.” Signed at the conclusion by Stuart, along with “R.M.C. Gartin” and two witnesses. Reverse of second integral page is docketed in an unknown hand, “Contract for furnishing Beef to the Troops & employees—at Fort Leavenworth KT for one year from 1st July 1856. Lieut James E.B. Stuart. 1st cav. A.G. with R.M.C. Gartin.” In fine condition, with a horizontal fold through second line of Stuart’s signature and a uniform shade of light toning.

Serving as regimental quartermaster and commissary officer under the command of Colonel Edwin Sumner at Fort Leavenworth, Stuart began his army career in the tumultuous Kansas Territory in 1855. Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which provided that settlers of new territories would decide by popular vote whether to be free or slave states, thousands of people from both sides of the debate immigrated to Kansas to push for their opposing causes. When abolitionist leader John Brown received word from his son that a massive group of heavily armed pro-slavery Missourians—known as ‘Border Ruffians’—had arrived, he began his journey to Kansas, collecting weapons along the way. Just five days before Stuart signed this document, Brown and his company of Free State volunteers murdered five pro-slavery settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek, just 35 miles away from Fort Leavenworth, in one of the most gruesome examples of the antebellum violence of ‘Bleeding Kansas.’ Three years later, Stuart would recognize Brown at Harper’s Ferry, leading to his capture and hanging. Ordering supplies for Leavenworth’s “Troops and employees” from across the border, this is an excellent letter from Stuart’s trying days on the frontier.