Raynors HCA 2016-10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016
Manuscript telegram on a partly-printed document, 1 page, 8" x 5.75" on a form for "THE SOUTHERN TELEGRAPH COMPANIES," Richmond, July 12, 1864, being a received transcription of a telegram from Jefferson Davis to General George Washington Custis Lee informing him that he had ordered the abandonment of a daring plan to raid Washington in the summer of 1864. Davis' telegram reads in full: "Sent telegram this morning to Col Jno T Wood to indicate my belief that the attempt would not be fruitless[.] If you have not other information I advise abandonment of project". With the situation rapidly deteriorating on the Southern home front as Grant's army pushed relentlessly toward Richmond, Davis chose to undertake several risky operations to both boost Confederate morale and dampen the reelection prospects for President Lincoln that fall. One of the measures was a planned expedition to the Union prisoner of war camp established at Point Lookout, Maryland, located at the confluence of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.
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