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Lot 66
Lincoln Considers Quaker for Provost Marshal in West Virginia
Description:

Lincoln Considers Quaker for Provost Marshal in West Virginia

President Abraham Lincoln placed this brief file note on an envelope that contained recommendations for the appointment of Samuel A. Pancoast as provost marshal in Hampshire County in the northeastern part of the new state of West Virginia. On the north, the county borders the Potomac River, across which lies western Maryland, and the southern branch of the Potomac River runs through western Hampshire County.

Perhaps after he was released from the Confederate prison at Salisbury, North Carolina, Pancoast again came to Lincoln's attention, and he considered rewarding him with a position as provost marshal. There is no record of Pancoast's appointment.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Autograph Document, File Note on Envelope for recommendations of Samuel A. Pancoast, ca. 1863-1865. 1 p., 4" x 8.875". Horizontal and vertical folds; text clear and dark; very good.

Complete Transcript
Samuel A. Pancoast – for P. Marshal. / Hampshire Co. West Va.

Historical Background
When Virginia voted to secede from the Union, Quaker Samuel A. Pancoast lived in Hampshire County in northern Virginia, on the Maryland border. Because of local concerns and his expressed northern sentiments, Pancoast was arrested by Confederate authorities in August 1861 but released on parole after pledging loyalty to Virginia. Some neighbors suspected that he was using pigeons he bought for his wife as carrier pigeons to transmit messages about Confederate movements to Union officers.

Because his neighborhood was suffering from a lack of salt (for curing meat), clothing, and other items, Pancoast went to Washington, D.C. to see President Abraham Lincoln in mid-September 1861. On September 17, 1861, Pancoast wrote on a small card, "S. A. Pancoast of Virginia, wants five minutes' conversation with the President." He met with the President, who "was in the hands of a barber, who was shaving him." Pancoast told the President that his community of "Union people" was suffering from a lack of salt. He asked Lincoln to allow him to take "a limited supply" from Hagerstown through the Union lines to Hampshire County. Not certain whether Pancoast's request was "admissible," Lincoln sent Pancoast to Lieutenant General Winfield Scott with a brief letter telling Scott he thought "you will better understand the matter than I."

On September 25, Scott gave Pancoast permission to take salt into Hampshire County; Pancoast also secured assurances from Virginia military authorities in the area that they would not confiscate the salt. He began trading extensively in salt and other goods. On October 23, Union Brigadier General James Cooper wrote to General Winfield Scott that he had "felt constrained from the abuse to which I saw the permission would be liable to countermand" the permission Scott had given to Pancoast. On November 2, Major-General George B. McClellan extended Pancoast's "permission to furnish salt to Union men in Virginia" until further orders.

Confederate authorities arrested Pancoast on charges of speculation on November 11 and imprisoned him at Richmond. His wife appealed directly to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, insisting that her husband was "in every respect a true and loyal citizen.". Pancoast and his family insisted that Robert B. Sherrard had Pancoast arrested because of personal animosity. In January 1862, Commissioner Sidney S. Baxter prepared a report on Pancoast and concluded that his "place of nativity, his abolitionist proclivities, the character he bears in his neighborhood and his antecedents generally, his suspicious movements, his connection through his son with the Northern army and the easy access he evidently has to the functionaries of our enemy, point him out as a man whom it would be highly dangerous to allow to live in a border region where he could easily communicate to the enemy information which it might be of the utmost importance to withhold." Baxter also concluded, "I recommend for the present he be held as a prisoner who has violated his parole and engaged in improper and secret communications with the enemy."

In the course of the investigation, Baxter examined Pancoast, who said he disapproved of the South for seceding and of the North for trying to coerce the South. As a Quaker, he was opposed to war but was willing to take an oath of allegiance to Virginia and the Confederate States of America. Pancoast remained imprisoned in Richmond until May 1862, when he was transferred to Salisbury prison in North Carolina, where he remained for nearly ten months longer.

Samuel A. Pancoast's brother, renowned Philadelphia surgeon Joseph Pancoast (1805-1882), wrote to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton seeking the release of his brother. On January 12, 1863, Stanton permitted Dr. Alfred Hughes (1824-1880) to go to Richmond to exchange himself for Pancoast. Hughes was a physician from Wheeling, (West) Virginia, who had been arrested for writing "seditious" letters against the Lincoln administration and imprisoned for eight months at Camp Chase in Ohio. On March 13, Commissary General of Prisoners William Hoffman informed his agent at Fort Monroe that because he had heard nothing from Dr. Hughes, he should demand of the Confederate commissary general of prisoners that Pancoast "be immediately released."

When John M. Rich recounted his experiences as a political prisoner for twenty-one months in rebel prisons before an attentive audience in April 1863, he singled out Pancoast as one of his fellow prisoners who were generous in aiding other prisoners. After his release, Pancoast submitted a bill for $355 to the commissary general of prisoners that was approved and paid.

Although there were no major battles in Hampshire County, the area frequently came under the control of passing armies from both sides. The town of Romney changed hands at least fifty-six times during the war, and on June 11, 1861, it changed hands twice on the same day. The Hampshire Guards and Frontier Riflemen, formed in the county, joined the Confederate Army.

In June 1862, Congress required President Abraham Lincoln to define "insurrectionary districts," where additional taxes would be imposed. Lincoln classified most of Virginia as an insurrectionary district but excluded 39 northwestern Virginia counties. He identified nine counties, including Hampshire, as insurrectionary that would be included in West Virginia a year later.

West Virginia became a state on June 20, 1863, and Hampshire County became a part of the new state. Because Lincoln wrote, "Hampshire Co. West Virginia," this file note must date after the middle of 1863.

Samuel A. Pancoast (1807-1866) was born in Monmouth, New Jersey, and "brought up an orthodox Quaker." He married Rachel Newbold (1803-1871), and they had at least four children. In 1847, he purchased an iron furnace in Hampshire County, Virginia, for $12,000, but by 1860, he was not producing much iron. During the Civil War, his son George L. Pancoast (1838-1868) served as a surgeon in the Union Army and became medical director of the cavalry command. In mid-February 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Samuel A. Pancoast as a Direct Tax Commissioner for Georgia. Pancoast died in Athens, Georgia, in September 1866.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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