JOSEPH
E. JOHNSTON. Autograph Letter Signed, Washington, DC,
16 December 1890. 2 pages, 7" x 4½", on two facing
pages of a four-page lettersheet.
A controversial
Confederate general, Joseph E. Johnston held key posts in northern Virginia,
on the Mississippi, and in Georgia during the Civil War, despite his
ongoing quarrel with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After the
war, Johnston worked in the insurance business, became involved in politics,
and published a number of works defending his wartime service.
Johnston
wrote this letter, evidently to an old acquaintance, just three months
before his death. "I have been very unpunctual apparently,
in this reply to your letter," he notes. "But it
is because I have been trying to obtain what you asked for – photographs
and letters.... [I]n this long delay have not been able to find letters.
Every thing of that sort that I possessed was carried off by a flood
in the Salado in the spring of 1849. I send two photographs, however
– one of each of the gentlemen you name – in another envelope.
I have been hoping for some time, to visit Texas again, but so far,
have not been able to do so. Such a visit would include Dallas, of course."
He has signed, "J. E. Johnston." The Salado, a river
in northeast Mexico, flows into the Rio Grande.
The letter
is written on two side-by-side pages of a four-page lettersheet, allowing
for easy display. It is in very good condition. $750.00
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