Raynor HCA 2013-01
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/10/2013
Autograph Letter Signed, "Chas C. Palfrey", 1-1/4p. folio, May 17, 1865, Franklin Parrish of St. Mary, Louisiana, addressed to Captain L.D. Prescott, the commander of Co. A, 2nd Louisiana Cavalry. Palfrey worried about the developments in the East requests that Captain Prescott grant a furlough, to Private James Parkson, to secure the records of Franklin in Confederate Texas. The letter reads in part: "...It has become necessary that I should send a Deputy to the State of Texas, for the purpose of ventilating, and examining the Records belonging to my Office as the Recorder of this Parrish, which were conveyed to that State for safety, from the reach of the Enemy, and which have remained for a long time in close boxes, and also to obtain several authentic copies of important records, which are required by the parties concerned, for judicial and other purposes; - to this end I have appointed as my Deputy, Mr. James G. Parkson, the former Recorder of the Parrish, who conveyed the Records to Texas, tender an order from the Police Jury, and who knows where they have been deposited...Mr. Parkson I believe is a private in your company, and in order that he be sent on this public business to Texas, it is necessary that he have a furlough for sixty or ninety days...as the copies required may occupy him for a considerable length of time...the Records are deposited some 500 miles from this place...It is quite impracticable for me to absent myself from my official duties here...I am the only Civil officer here, authorized to administer oaths in all cases, in which capacity my services are almost daily required..." VG. An exceptional letter written during the final days of the Confederacy as General Kirby Smith would surrender his Trans-Mississippi Department less than 10 days later. The home owned by Charles Palfrey during the war was built by his father in law Governor Joshua Baker for his daughter Fannie Ashton Baker who married Charles in 1851. This Greek revival mansion is gorgeous and still standing in Franklin.
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