2024-01 Raynors Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/20/2024
Broadside, 4-3/4" x 8", Houston, February 23, 1865. Small institutional stamp ("withdrawn") on verso. A scarce Confederate imprint, reporting the details of the attempted desertion of Private Antone Richers of Degé's Light Battery. Richers deserted on December 10, 1864 at Galveston, Texas, but his boat capsized in trying to navigate the channel, and when he was rescued he was charged with desertion and found guilty. Richers was sentenced "to be shot to death with musketry." From a newspaper report, we read of the execution, March 3, 1865. In full, "A sharp rattle of musketry, and the prisoner fell dead, several balls having passed through his breast … The saddest part of the story remains to be told. The friends of the prisoner had sent Rev. Father Ansteadt on the day before the execution, by hand car, to Houston, as bearer of documents addressed to General Walker, showing that [Richers] was not of sound mind, and setting forth other reasons why he ought to be respited. The telegraph line between [Galveston] and Houston broke down the evening before the execution, and remained down [until] fifteen minutes after the execution. No intelligence from General Walker could therefore reach [Galveston]. But as soon as the telegraph operated, a dispatch was received from General Walker, dated the night before, containing an order for the respite of Anton [Richers]. It was too late - the man was dead.
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