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John D. Imboden

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD
John D. Imboden

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Auction Date:2014 Apr 16 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, 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
Lawyer, teacher, and Confederate officer (1823–1895) most active in the Virginia area. Boldly penned ALS signed “J. D. Imboden, ex-Brig. Genl Cavalry, C. S. A.,” five pages, lightly-lined, 8 x 10.5, September 5, 1888. Letter to an admirer. In part: “All my papers were burned in April 1865—even my commissions and private letters, and what I prized more highly, many autograph letters of Gen. R. E. Lee, Genl. T. J. Jackson (’Old Stonewall’), and other distinguished generals on our side…I was commissioned a Captain by Gov. Henry A. Wise to command ‘the Staunton Artillery,’ a splendid field battery…The then recent raid of the old fanatic, horse thief and murderer John Brown into Virginia at Harpers’ Ferry, to incite a servile insurrection of the negroes had greatly aroused the young men of the State to form themselves into military volunteer companies to repel that, or any more momentous, invasion of our peaceful homes…we found him [Brown] out in 1859, and hung him for his crimes committed on our soil, should have prepared to defend ourselves…I was in Richmond on April 16th 1861, and learning that the State would certainly secede from the Union the next day, I that night wired the first order, so far as I know & believe, for the movement of troops in Va. in the great war bursting upon the Country. I ordered out my men & guns…We participated in the capture of Harpers’ Ferry with its armory & arsenal…a conspicuous part in the battle of Bull Run separated from my dearly beloved battery by promotion…sent by Pres. Davis to the mountains of North Western Virginia…to raise and command volunteers…In Jany. 1863 I was made a Brigadier general of Cavalry…Gen. R. E. Lee by special orders assigned me to the command of ‘The Valley District’…The ‘District’ had been created for ‘Stonewall’ Jackson…and was the scene of that great soldier’s most brilliant exploits. Greatly his inferior in rank, and almost infinitely his inferior in ability, and with but a tenth of the troops he had there in 1862, I was, as above stated, assigned to command the ‘Valley District,’ an honor I prize above all others…My military career was a simple earnest effort on my part to perform my highest duty to my State.” In fine condition. A remarkable letter rife with content related to the birth of the Civil War in Virginia.