Early Civil War Abraham Lincoln Letter sells for $85,000
A recently discovered letter written by President Abraham Lincoln that provides a glimpse into his thinking during the start of the Civil War sold in Pennsylvania this week for $85,000, according to an autograph dealer.
The previously unpublished letter had been in the same private collection for at least a century before it was acquired earlier this year, said Nathan Raab, the director of the Raab collectionwho buys and sells historical signatures, documents and signed letters.
“Discovery of unpublished, unknown letters from Abraham Lincoln is becoming increasingly rare,” Mr Raab said in a rack about the document on the Pennsylvania Collection website. The letter, which measures 5 by 8 inches, was sold on Wednesday to a private collector in the southeastern United States, Mr Raab said.
The short letter, dated August 19, 1861, is addressed to Charles Ellet Jr., an American civil engineer and Union Army colonel, who had met and lobbied the president for the creation of a civil engineering corps. Colonel Ellet had insisted that immediate action be taken to understand the South’s infrastructure, as he felt Washington was vulnerable.
“So here we see Lincoln making an effort to document Southern infrastructure and exploit that information to benefit the Union and protect Washington,” Raab said Wednesday.
Mr Raab said the document showed the 16th president in his role as commander-in-chief in the early months of the civil war, which began in 1861 and ended in 1865.
He added that Colonel Ellet was a “very famous engineer” and that his letters to Lincoln were digitized by the Library of Congress.
In the letter, Lincoln directs Colonel Ellet to discuss the Corps issue with Gens. Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan and James Totten, all of whom Mr. Raab described as important players in the war.
“You propose to create a Civil Engineer Corps for the service of the United States,” Lincoln opened in the letter addressed to the White House, which he called the “Executive Mansion.”
Lincoln continued, “I am not able to judge the value of such a corps; but I’d be happy to accept one if approved by General Scott, General McClellan, and General Totten. Please check them out and ask their opinion about it.
Lincoln signed the letter “yours truly” followed by his name.
Mr. Raab said that “we know from Ellet’s next letter to Lincoln that he took this letter to McClellan, who refused to receive it despite the President’s order, physical evidence.”
But Colonel Ellet’s suggestions were ignored by the Union army, and on March 9, 1862, the Merrimack, a Confederate ram ship, destroyed a fleet of Union boats at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
Overall, Mr Raab said, the letter “fills in some of the historical record that was missing”.
Presidential artifacts are highly sought after by collectors. Historical importance often plays a major role in the price range. A rare example of the Emancipation Proclamation sold for over $2 million in New York City in 2012.
Obscure interest can also be a factor. A lock of Lincoln’s hair, wrapped in a bloody telegram announcing his assassination, sold for $81,000 in 2020. Another lock of his hair sold in Dallas in 2012 for $38,837.
A letter from Lincoln on Executive Mansion stationery demanding the postmaster general’s resignation before the 1864 election sold last year for $115,000while a one-sentence note calls for a cabinet meeting sold for $43,125.
“Abraham Lincoln is very popular with manuscript collectors, and anything written from the White House or Executive Mansion is pretty special,” said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president for Boston-based RR Auction.
Newly discovered letters from Lincoln pop up every few years, but the letter to Colonel Ellet was important because it showed the president’s efforts to balance technical, military and political demands, said James Cornelius, a historian and editor of The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association.
Harold Holzer, a Lincoln historian, said the letter was mysterious but important.
“We have long known of Ellet and his prescient concern for the security of Washington, D.C., during the early months of the Civil War, but not so much of Lincoln’s almost nonchalant willingness to let subordinates decide how to solve such critical matters — while he was still educating himself on military tactics and strategy,” said Mr. Holzer in an email.
Mr Raab said on Friday that the letter to Colonel Ellet had been sold within hours of being put up for sale.
“Its contents were not part of the collected works, adding to the excitement,” he said. “There’s also the intangible element that it hasn’t been on the public market, so it’s the first time a collector alive today has had the chance to own it.”