UNION CITY / TENNESSEE. large boldly struck negative ring cancel, typical partly clear strike with matching "5" handstamp on soldier's cover addressed in peacock blue ink to “Maj. H. Gilliam, Emory Holme,Miss.” with wonderful endorsement of “Red Invincibles 4th Regt Miss Vol Wm Gilliam C.S.A.”, slightly reduced at right, docketing on back reads "Fort Henry is the point we are ordered to", Fine and rare, ex Agre and Gunter; Company C was known as the Red Invincibles under the command of Capt. W. C. Red. Military records are sketchy at best, but regimental history indicates that Gilliam was a physician. A lovely showpiece. (Was long considered a provisional, but now delisted as such) 

SOMERVILLE / TEN / SEP / 17 / 1861 double circle cancel with matching handstamped PAID 10 addressed on narrow cover to “Miss Abbie Powers, Media, White Post, Clark Co, Virginia, C.S.A.”, underinking makes it appear as Sayerville but this is not the case, Very Fine Ex-Kohn and Boshwit.

STRAWBERRY PLAINS / TEN // 5 / AUG / 1861 cds with manuscript Paid 5 on cover to Col. Robert Love, Elizabethton Tenn,  flap tears extending over top of cover at upper left, Scarce town, Ex Boshwit $300.

DUCKTOWN / TENN // DEC / 14 cds with matching  oblong enclosed PAID (no rate) on small pink laid paper envelope addressed to Miss Melinda Sultan, Batesville, Habersham Co, Ga; large sealed diagonal split across center that appears as a crease; Ex Matz and Boshwit, Scarce $300.

FRANKLIN / TEN. // OCT / 20 [1861] cds with matching handstamped PAID 5 on cover addressed “For Bulls & Ingram Sons, Leonard Banks, Esqr., Thompsons Station, Tennessee, Care of Thomas H. Bond Esqr; top back flap missing, slightly reduced at top with slight edge fault above but not into markings, ex Boshwit  $300.

CHATTANOOGA / TEN. // JUL / 10 / 1861 CDS with matching PAID 10 on cover addressed to Hon. A. H. Stephens, Robt. Toombs, Richmond, Virginia. Contents docketing on verso “James C. Nisbet, Cloverdale Ga July 8th 1861. Writes to tender his corps of mountain men to Confederate States & begs to be ordered out immediately. Enclosed is a note to the Secretary of War.” Alexander Stephens was Vice President of the Confederacy; Toombs was CSA Secretary of State and Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. Ex Boshwit. Fabulous content docketing. Military records included. This will be written up in my column for the American Stamp Dealer & Collector. $475.

James Cooper Nisbet moved to Dade County with his brother John sometime after graduating from Oglethorpe to run a 3,000-acre farm. In 1861 he organized a company of troops, the "Silver Grays", which became Company H of the 21st Georgia Infantry - Nisbet was elected Captain (2 July 1861). He resigned his commission in the 21st Infantry 11 August 1863, and in mid-1863 he and Captain A. S. Hamilton organized the 66th Georgia Regiment and Nisbet was elected Colonel (8 October 1863). He was captured near Atlanta at Decatur, Georgia on 22 July 1864 and was imprisoned on Johnson's Island, Ohio until released 25 July 1865 at War's end. He was wounded both at Cold Harbor and Sharpsburg.  He returned to Dade County and later served in the Georgia Legislature and the State Constitutional Convention (1877) of which he was Secretary. He wrote a memoir of his War service, Four Years on the Firing Line, Chattanooga: Imperial Press, 1915. [also: Edited by Bell Irvin Wiley. Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1963.] This has long been recognized by Civil War experts as one of the best personal narratives by a Confederate officer.

JACKSON / TENN // FEB / 3 [1862] neat cds on fresh cover with matching handstamped PAID 5 addressed to Richard E. Butler, Esq., Houma, La. with docketing 1862 Febry 2nd, S. R. Hays; much of bottom back flap missing and small tear at bottom edge otherwise lovely and scarce use $400.

KNOXVILLE / TEN // JUL / 3 / 1861 (date reinforced with ink, not contemporary) with matching fancy handstamped PAID 5 on cover to Mr. James Lynn, Kingsport, E. Tenn., Via Rogersville; tear at top edge that extends just into the postmark. Ex Boshwit. $250.

STRAWBERRY PLAINS / TEN // 1 / OCT [1861] boldly struck neat cds with manuscript “Pd 5” rate on cover to Mrs. Linda W. Kennedy, Emory, Virginia; Scarce town marking. $350.

“Haynesville Tn Feb 27th Paid 10” all in manuscript on small homemade cover to “Miss Letitia Lynn, Eden Ridge [Tennessee] Mrs Lizzie S. Baugh, Abingdon Va”. This likely used twice as the Virginia addressee / location is different as is the handwriting. Letitia Dalton Lynn was born in Eden’s Ridge, Sullivan Co, Ten 3-14-1843 and died 11-21-1910 in Knoxville.  $250.

 LEBANON / TEN. // AUG / 27 / 1861 cds with matching handstamped PAID 5 on cover to Col. G. W. Gordon, Columbia, Tennessee, bit of staining, provenance two of the greatest Tennessee collections of recent times: Ex Gallagher and Boshwit.  $350.