Description:

Custer George 1839 - 1876 Incorporating "Genl Custer" addressing an envelope, General George Armstrong Custer writes to his wife from Virginia at the time of the Battle of the Wilderness Envelope addressed by Custer to his wife incorporating his signature "Mrs Genl Custer / 369 Penn Avenue / Washington D C," 8" x 3.5". "Printed Matter" also in his hand. 3΢ George Washington postage stamp in upper right postmarked Washington D.C. MAY 6 [1864]. Wrinkled envelope, tears at edges sealed back flap, slit at ends expertly reinforced at tears on verso. Fine condition.

On May 5-7, 1864, Gen. Custer took part in the Battle of the Wilderness, the first battle of Union Lieutenant General U.S. Grant's Virginia Overland Campaign against Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, fought about 60 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. Custer wrote this in Virginia prior to May 6, 1864. It was sent by courier, ostensibly with other soldiers' mail, to the Washington, D.C., post office to be postmarked and delivered.

Elizabeth Bacon and George A. Custer were married on February 9, 1864. In "The Boy General: Story of the Life of Major-General George A. Custer" as told by Elizabeth B. Custer (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901), Mrs. Custer wrote that after they married, "when the regular spring campaign began, I returned to Washington, where I remained until the surrender and the close of the war." While the year is not clear in the postmark, it must have been 1864; May 6, 1865 was four weeks after Lee's surrender and by then the Custers were together again.

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