2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
Augustus A. Gibson attended the Military Academy, served at Ft. Monroe, than in the Military Occupation of Texas and the Mexican War, he later served in the Seminole Wars, before being commissioned a colonel of the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery. This wonderful letter by Gibson, is 3p. quarto, dateline Fort Monroe, Virginia, December 23, 1841, with integral leaf addressed to Miss. Hathaway, bearing an Old Comfort cds and straightline PAID, but the key to this piece of history is the beautiful artwork on page one covering the entire top portion of the lettesheet, and depciting the raising of the American flag and the firing of the cannon at morning review at the famous Fort Monroe. An excellent example of soldier art. VG. Fort Monroe (also known as Fortress Monroe) is a Hampton, Virginia, military installation located at Old Point Comfort, which is on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. Along with Fort Calhoun, later renamed Fort Wool, it guarded approach by sea of the navigational shipping channel between the Chesapeake Bay and the entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads, which itself is formed by the confluence of the Elizabeth River, the Nansemond River, and the James River, the longest in Virginia. As a young first lieutenant and engineer in the U.S. Army, Robert E. Lee was stationed there from 1831 to 1834, and played a major role in the final construction of both Fort Monroe and its opposite, Fort Calhoun. When construction was completed in 1834, Fort Monroe was referred to as the "Gibraltar of Chesapeake Bay."
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