2024-07 Raynors Historical Collectible Auctions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/13/2024
An early Alabama Secession letter, 1 1/2pp. 4to., written by a certain "W. H. Lyon," Demopolis, Alabama, Jan. 26, 1861, to the Governor of Alabama Andrew B. Moore, concerning an appointment for the man who would become the commandant of Cahaba Confederate Military Prison which opened in June 1863, reading, in part: "I have never asked appointments for myself or friends from Governors or Presidents…if you would appoint the Rev. Mr. [Howard A. M.] Henderson, Agent Commissioner to Kentucky. You would be doing the good and Righteous cause service. He is all powerful…and a Southern man all over and would be of immense benefit to our Cause…a Kentuckian by birth…a Southern man…and every inch [an] Alabamian. Genl. N. B. Whitefield and sundry others of our most prominent men will address you on this subject. I have no doubt …his would be proved of such a college. I heard Wm. Henderson say…he would be willing to stump the State of Kentucky if necessary. Send him along in some capacity. Your cause is approved here by the people…find some way to send Henderson to Kentucky-and call here…he will be worth an army…truly yours, W. H. Lyon." Howard Andrew Millet Henderson (1836-1912) a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University as an attorney. He became a benevolent Methodist preacher before the war, until becoming a captain in the Confederate Exchange Bureau, during the war. He 1863 he was assigned to oversee the daily operations of the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Cahaba, Alabama. There his meticulous oversight to the prisoner's health and well-being attributed greatly to their survival rate. His compassion for humanity was unsurpassed, and indeed, when Union General U. S. Grant's mother, Hannah died in 1883. The former Union commander asked Henderson to official over his mother's funeral asking him to pronounce her a "pure-minded, simple-hearted, earnest Methodist Christian." Overall VG.
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