George Armstrong Custer and San Antonio Texas in 1865

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2005

A very rare post-war 2p. 4to., letter finely penned in ink by Major Isaac N. Lerich, 3rd Michigan Vols., "San Pedro Springs, Tx., Dec. 6, 1865", to his mother concerning frontier life at San Antonio, Texas, where he is post commander, and of the boy General G. A. Custer arriving at his first military post in the American West, reading, in part: "…we are still at the [San Pedro] Spring, but expect to move to the city every day. I am…commanding the Regt. [and] also Inspector Genl. of…San Antonio…there is…but three Regt. here now…Maj. Gen. [David] Stanley and staff bid us farewell…he has been relieved of the command of the central District of Texas by Maj. Genl. Custer. We gave…Stanley a splendid ball at the Casino Hall…which was the grandest thing San Antonio ever saw…here its as warm that a linen coat is very comfortable during the middle of the day…every thing is so different here from what it is north. There is people from every part of the world and everybody is making money but the poor soldier. Their Greenbacks don't last long in fact paper money is but little used here. Gold and silver is all the go and the sight of Mexican dollars…is wonderful. Its no strange sight at all to see a man walking through the street with two or three darkeys behind him carrying from a peck to two bushels of silver dollars on their backs. Perhaps you think that is a silver story-I do…". Lerich had had a full military career during the Civil War. Enlisting in the 5th Mich. during July1861. He was wounded and captured during McClellan's Peninsular campaign at the battle of White Oak Swamp on June 30, 1862. Discharged for these wounds the following spring. He reenlisted in the 3rd Mich. Vols. on October 8, 1864 and served faithfully throughout the remainder of the conflict. With the close of the Civil War, he helped guard the United States from foreign invasion on the Texas frontier until discharged in May 1866. Negligible toning affects the right margin, else very good.

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