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"The Enemy is approaching...."

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:237.00 USD Estimated At:475.00 - 575.00 USD
 The Enemy is approaching....
Prescient telegram during the Vicksburg Campaign, in clerical hand, from Confederate Lt. Gen. Comdg. J.C. Pemberton, who had the ignominious fate of losing that marathon clash - and effectively, the Civil War. Jackson (Miss.), Apr. 20, 1863, 5 3/4 x 6 3/4. On partly printed form of South-Western Telegraph Co. To Gen. Ruggles. "I hear from Several Sources but not your Head Quarters that Enemy is approaching Pontotoc. This is a mere raid but should not be unmolested by you." A Pennsylvania-born Quaker, Pemberton had advised abandonment of Fort Sumter in 1862. Here in the thick of the Vicksburg Campaign, it was later observed, "placing Pemberton in command in Mississippi must rank as one of Jefferson Davis' major mistakes"--The Army of Tennessee, Stanley F. Horn, 1941. "Harrassed and bewildered" at Vicksburg, Pemberton's capture - choosing to surrender on July 4th - compounded their defeat at Gettysburg, leading the South to suspect treason. "Coming the day after the Federal victory at Gettysburg, the fall of Vicksburg sounded the death knell of the Confederate cause...Grant had achieved one of the most brilliant military successes in history"--Boatner. Exchanged the following year, Pemberton resigned, though history records that his sole offense was "mediocre generalship." Docketed. Old paper hinges at corners of verso, uniform cream toning, else fine. In old, plain file folder, pencilled title, believed ex-Thomas J. Madigan. Telegrams from Pemberton, certainly from his last campaign, are very scarce. His nephew, a druggist and Confederate officer, is regarded as the inventor of Coca-Cola.