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William T. Sherman

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD
William T. Sherman

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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
War-dated ALS signed “W. T. Sherman, Maj. Genl.,” one page, 5 x 8, Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi letterhead, September 24, 1864. Letter to treasury agent William P. Mellen. In full: “Mr OH Ross, late A.D.C. on Gen Grant’s Staff desires to engage in business at Nashville, Memphis, or Vicksburg. I request that you extend to him the privileges of the most favored Class.” On the reverse of the second integral page, Ross has written a note in pencil, which reads: “Your request to Mr. Mellen is in general terms. I want a request to him to give me a military supply store at Vicksburg. Please telegraph him to that effect, and it will be sufficient." A horizontal fold passing through signature and some scattered light soiling, otherwise fine condition. Accompanied by the original transmittal envelope.

Four months after beginning the Atlanta Campaign, determined to seize the crucial railroads and supply lines of the Confederate-held city, Union troops commanded by William T. Sherman finally forced the surrender and withdrawal of John Hood’s rebel forces on September 2, 1864. Establishing his headquarters there on September 7, Sherman would remain in Atlanta for over two months before ordering the evacuation of all citizens, burning all but 400 of the city’s buildings, and departing east toward Savannah on his famous March to the Sea. This letter—helping Orlando H. Ross, a cousin of U. S. Grant’s and a former aide-de-camp on his staff, secure permission to open a supply store in Mississippi—is one of only a handful written by Sherman in Atlanta after the key victory to appear at auction, especially desirable with its personal association to Grant.