NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2002 May 10 @ 10:00UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
MEMPHIS, SAFFORD FAMILY CONFEDERATE ARCHIVE. Henry Safford Papers, 1818-1865. 24 letters, ADsS, 4AMsS, and 3 tintypes. Papers of clergyman Henry Safford, including 18 letters 1818-1860; 2 outstanding Confederate soldiers' letters, 4 war-date Confederate civilian letters; and document relating to the sale of a slave, 1845. Having studied for the clergy at Princeton, the Vermonter, Henry Safford left school in 1820 to work for a Presbyterian mission society, pounding the pulpit in the Burned Over District of New York. The collection of family correspondence received by Safford includes approximately a dozen letters documenting his activities at Princeton and immediately after, including some fine descriptions of religious yearning in Vermont (where his parents remained) and, by inference, western New York. One of the best is a letter dated December 10, 1828, describing the "unnatural and awful" death of Henry's uncle Nathan, who (as the letter describes in great detail) awoke hungry one morning and having trouble taking off his hat, mysteriously plunged head first down a well, breaking his neck, probably a suicide. "I have done all that I can do, but the question immediately occurs have I done all that I could have done while you were within the reach of mercy... I have often visited him and laboured to comfort and encourage him - and impressed on his mind the importance of resisting temptations - I never have witnessed a person so reched and miserable, as he had uniformly been since about the middle of May last, no object nor subject could I present before him that appeared to interest him in the least degree..." Much more. Another letter mentions another suicidal relative and a brother who suffered fits on a regular basis so several as to incapacitate him. By the time of the Civil War, Henry had daughters in Georgia and South Carolina and an enduring set of unionist sentiments, at least according to his daughter, Eliza. Teaching school in Atlanta, Eliza was baffled by the secession movement: "I know I am behind the times in some opinions, but I never yet have been able to see the very great benefits to be derived from secession. I cant help believing that united, firm action on the part of the south would have given the southern states all their rights in the Union and this seceding and forming a southern confederation seems to me very like a man's 'cutting off his nose to spite his face.'" To Henry's undoubted dismay, his namesake son joined the Confederate service, enrolled in Adams' Brigade, Breckinridge's Division. The two surviving letters are excellent, and as well written as anything offered by his Princeton-educated father. In his 4p letter of April 27, 1863, Safford offers a unique view of the mounting Confederate defense in Tennessee (Tullahoma and Murfreesboro). Approaching Gen. Leonidas Polk to ask for a staff position, he was told to join a cavalry company from which he would be assigned to Polk's body guard, about which Polk stated "the service was light and the men of a better description than usual," not to mention the better prospects for promotion. Henry, Jr.'s, next letter is datelined "Polk's Corps," suggesting which path he chose. In an excellent 4p. letter, Safford describes the back and forth with federal troops outside Tullahoma, July 1863, beginning with the capture of an Irish soldier from Illinois: "a surly fellow. When told that the Federals could not get away with their artillery, & could not approach us on acc't of the [muddy] roads, he replied, as I learned, that they got along very well with their artillery, & would show us that afternoon, or in the morning, whether they could get at us." Not the response was not quite "Nuts" in its eloquence, it was accurate enough in predicting an engagement, tied in the Bragg's abandonment of Tennessee. The letter ends on a depressing note: "Conflicting rumors reach us from Va. Vicksburg reported gone. I see nothing cheering in Confederate prospects." Also included: 4 sermons delivered in Second Great Awakening-era Georgia, ca.1828-1843: Rom xii, 2; Matt. xxi:22; Gen. ii:7; sermon (?) in shorthand; 3 sixth-plate tintypes (two men; four men smoking cigars; two women). The document, dated September 1845, is of considerable interest: Jesse Leftwich authorizes Rob Parker "to sell my negro man John aged about fifty years." PLEASE NOTE: THIS LOT WILL BE SOLD ON EBAY LIVE AUCTIONS BETWEEN 5:00-6:00pm EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME ON MAY 10, 2002. REGISTER NOW TO BID LIVE ONLINE THE DAY OF THE SALE! (EST 500-900)
Auction Location:
United States
Previewing Details:
11:00 AM Day of Sale.
Additional Fees:
Shipping Details:
No Info Available
Payment Details:
No Info Available