2025-01 Raynors Historical Collectible Auctions
Absentee bidding for this session ends on Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST.
The live portion of this session begins on Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST
JAMES SIMONS (1813 - 1879) Confederate Brigadier General, the first general officer appointed by Jefferson Davis. He was the commanding officer of the Confederate defenses at Morris Island during the first attack at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Autograph Note Signed “James Simons” in full, “Dear Sir, please mark down how much a share each borrower had to pay i.e. what were the monthly installments.” This written on the reverse of a document noting the payments of two men through February 1862. Following South Carolina’s secession on December 21, 1860 the situation in Charleston Harbor was tense and fluid. On the 27th U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson and his men abandoned the indefensible Fort Moultrie and occupied Fort Sumter, situated in the center of the Harbor and thought to be one of the strongest fortresses in the world. In response Governor Pickens ordered South Carolina militia to occupy and/or reinforce the now-empty Fort Moultrie as well as Fort Johnson and Castle Pinckney, and to establish a new battery at Morris’s Island to command the entrance to the harbor. On December 31 he placed Major General Schnierle in charge of the whole, seconded by General Simons, with orders to prevent the reinforcement of Fort Sumter by any means necessary.
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