2021-02 Raynors HCA Live
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/6/2021
IMBODEN, John Daniel (1823-1895), American lawyer, Virginia state legislator, and a Confederate army general. During the American Civil War, he commanded an irregular cavalry force. After the war, he resumed practicing law, became a writer, and was active in land development founding the town of Damascus, Virginia. Autograph Letter Signed "J.D. Imboden" Brigadier General Commanding, 2pp. quarto, Head Quarters Valley District, August 27, 1863, addressed to Virginia Governor Letcher, and reads in part: "...Major Harry W. Gilmore Comdg, a Battalion in the lower Valley has learned that a paper has been sent to you from the neighborhood of Winchester signed by numerous citizens complaining that his men are plundering the people and stealing horses & other property. Now I happen to know Major Gilmore very well & he is at present under my command and I take occasion to say to you that he is a high toned honorable gentleman and most efficient officer, and in the only two instances in which his men have been probably guilty of these offenses he has the parties in jail to be tried. The fact is...the whole lower Valley and along the Blue Ridge the county is filled with deserters from the Army, and these are the scoundrels who commit these outrages, and to avoid arrest claim to belong to the nearest command - and in this case Major Gilmore happening to be on duty in that part of the Country every villain who has deserted his colors will pass himself as one of Gilmore's men whenever questioned. The Major has informed of his purpose to lynch some of these fellows, a proceeding in which I will sustain him, as I believe it to be the only means of breaking up this rascality..." Fine condition. Harry Ward Gilmore (1838-1883) served as the Baltimore City Police Commissioner, head of the Baltimore City Police Department in the 1870s, but he was most noted as a daring and dashing Confederate cavalry officer during the American Civil War. Gilmore's daring raids, such as The Magnolia Station Raid through north-central Maryland in July 1864 during the third major Confederate invasion of the North gained his partisans fame as "Gilmore's Raiders".
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