Giant Steps

Rediscovering the Confederate Treasury A Mountain Island, North Carolina History
As collectors we collect for many reasons: to fill an album page, the challenge of the hunt, appreciation of value, the beauty of the art or, in my case, the history surrounding the items. A recent move to a new location provided me the opportunity to explore the postal history of my new environs. What a surprise I uncovered as I dug deep into the history of my new home place - a small lake north of Charlotte with a postal history just waiting to be told.

In May of 1854, John Tate was appointed Postmaster of the Town of Mountain Island, located on a peninsula created by the Catawba River in the northeast portion of Gaston County bordering Mecklenburg County. The history of the community starts a few years earlier.

The first Gaston County textile mill came the same year Gaston became a county and, like the first settlers, it came on a wagon from the north - northern North Carolina. Thomas Randolph Tate bought property on Mountain Island and set up a mill. He called it appropriately the Mountain Island Mill. Tate had bought the Mount Heccla Mill in Greensboro from Henry Humphreys, his father-in-law, who built the mill in 1828. As fuel became scarce, Tate first moved the building to a location near a major water source, then to Mountain Island where water from the Catawba River produced steam to power the machinery. The mill had looms and spindles - a spinning and weaving operation for cotton and wool cloth.

The Mountain Island Mill rose four stories high out of the ground near the river. It was built of red bricks purchased from Mountain Island Manufacturing Company, which made them from the red clay. Construction was completed and the machinery was in place by the fall of 1848, when the machines began to hum and the first bolts of cloth rolled out of the mill.

In 1852, about six years after the Mountain Island Mill began operation, John Lineberger, Caleb Lineberger, Labon Lineberger, Jonas Hoffman, John Clemmer and Moses Rhyne opened the Woodlawn Company below Spencer’s Mountain on the South Fork near what is now McAdenville.

These mills would begin the textile future of Gaston County.

The Mountain Island mill site was chosen for two reasons: one was that there was a partially constructed canal, originally intended to convey cotton to Charleston but which could be easily used for a race; the other was that water power was cheaper than steam. The name was chosen from the little mountain, now almost covered by water, and from Mt. Hechler Mill at Greensboro from which the machinery was moved and started up in its new home during the fall of 1849.

Mr. Tate was a son-in-law of Henry Humphrey who erected and operated the Mt. Hechler Mill at Greensboro. It was largely through marriage with Mr. Humphrey’s daughter that Tate came into possession of it.

Short hours were unknown. In those days the mill was operated from sunup to sundown. Men’s wags were from twenty-five to forty cents a day. Women received the same for weaving. The pay of small boys was from five to twenty-five cents. There was no age limit and free schools were unknown, thus there was nothing else for children to do but work.

Heavy sheeting was manufactured in the plant. It was sold mostly in North Carolina and Tennessee. The white sheeting was used for men’s underclothes. Dyes were made from copperas or maple bark or sumac berries to color the cloth for women’s dresses or other uses.

During the Civil War, the mill started a wool department and made blankets and southern gray for soldiers’ uniforms. Negro slave labor was used to run the mill during the war.

The mill closed down at the end of the war and remained closed until 1872. In 1894 the Tate’s sold the mill to William J. Hopper who operated the mill until 1916 when a great flood destroyed the entire plant.

A review of the Postmaster of Mountain Island post office indicates the mill played an important roll in its operation. John Tate was Postmaster through the Civil War. Ferdinand Tate was appointed in 1878, Frank Hooper in 1884 and a James Tate in 1904. On April 30, 1910 the post office was closed for the last time.

Postmasters of Mountain Island:
John Tate - 5 May 1854
John Tate, CSA - 6 Jul 1861
CSA office closed on or before - 30 Apr 1865
Federal office discontinued - 4 Mar 1867
Purnell P. Zimmerman - 9 Jun 1875
Ferdinand A. Tate - 3 Oct 1878
Felix A. Savin - 28 Apr 1884
Frank B. Hooper - 1 May 1884
William T. Jordan - 1 Dec 1884
James E. Tate - 26 Oct 1904
Belle Miller - 3 May 1906
William O. Gardner - 8 Feb 1907
Discontinued - 30 Apr 1910

The story now needs to turn south about 10 miles to Charlotte and return to the Civil War era. A large part of the Confederate Navy Yard was moved from Norfolk Virginia to Charlotte early in the war. Charlotte was selected because of its railroad facilities. It was a wise choice since the Charlotte yard suffered less interruption from the movement of the enemy than any of the other naval ordinance plants. By war’s end, there were 300 employed at the Navy yard. Throughout the war, this plant produced shafting for propellers of steamers, wrought iron projectiles and various kinds of ordinance equipment and ammunition.

Charlotte’s most unforgettable war days were those just preceding and immediately following Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

When Jefferson Davis anticipated the imminent fall of Richmond, he sent his wife and children to Charlotte where he thought they might dwell safely and comfortably until he could join them. At Charlotte they were house guests of a local merchant named Weill. Subsequently, Mrs. Davis and her party moved into a furnished house. This event is described in a letter written by Mrs. John Wilkes which reads, “The house was located on the northeast corner of Brevard and 5th Streets. Such of us as could spare any furniture sent what we could to furnish the house. I sent her bread, milk and pantry supplies, as did many other housekeepers.”

When Mrs. Davis heard of Lee’s surrender and that President Davis was making his way south, she became frantic with alarm. When she observed the troops which had brought treasury funds from Richmond to Charlotte sometime before, preparing to move them to a place of greater safety, she decided to join them and left Charlotte two days before her husband’s arrival. She wrote her husband frequently. A copy of one of these letters has been preserved and illuminates the situation that existed in Charlotte at that time:

My own dear Bunny,
Since my arrival here I have been so busy as to have only the evening to write in, and then but one room where the children most did congregate, so I have written you but one disjointed letter.

The news of Richmond came upon me like the “abomination of desolation” the loss of Selma like the blackness thereof. Since your telegram upon your arrival at Danville, we have nothing except the wildest rumors, all, however, discouraging.

I, who know that your strength when stirred up, is grand, and that you can do with a few what others have failed to do with many, am awaiting prayerfully the advent when it is God’s will to delivery us through his appointed agent. I trust it may be you, as I believe it is.

It would comfort me greatly if you could only find an opportunity to write me a full, long letter. As soon as we are established here I am going to leave Mrs. Chesnut with the children and bring Li Pie [evidently the baby] to see you. The gentlemen I have seen here are exceedingly kind, and have offered me every civility in their power.

The surgeon general was also very kind in his offers of service. Colonel Johnston, with his wife, called to see me. Mrs. Joe Johnston is living here with the cashier of the bank, and family, and keeps a pretty fancy carriage and horse. I haven’t seen her but I hear she is going out of town before long to some watering place or other. Mrs. Semmes went off yesterday for the South. I did not see her. The Wigfalls are staying, I believe, with Mrs. Johnston, also. They arrived yesterday.

I hear a funny account of Wigfall’s interview with Beauregard. It seems he went to see him on his way to this place and when the news of the evacuation of Richmond came, and that the enemy had not yet entered town, the general said, “Oh! They do not understand the situation. It is, or ought to be a plan of Lee’s to keep between Richmond and the enemy. If Grant attempted to throw troops between his army and Richmond, Lee can whip them in detail.”

I cannot judge the moral effect of the fall of Richmond. The people here were about as low as they could be before, as I infer from little things, but, upon the whole I do not think the shock is as great as I expected.

We had a digest of your address to the people today, and I could not make much of it, except an encouraging exhortation. Am anxious to see the whole thing. Numberless surmises are hazarded here as to your future destination and occupation, but I know that wherever you are and in whatever engaged it is an efficient manner for the country. The way things look now the trans-Mississippi seems our ultimate destination.

Though I know you do not like interference, let me entreat you not to send B. B. to command here. I am satisfied that the country will be ruined by its intestine feuds if you do so. If your friends thought it best I should feel helpless, but resigned; but even those who hope for favors in that event deprecate it for you. If I am intrusive forgive me for the sake of the love which impels me, but pray long and fervently before you decide to do it.

Mrs. Chesnut wrote me a most affectionate letter from Chester today. She is staying in two rooms very badly furnished, and furnished with food by her friend there�”

Much of the money that was stored in Charlotte was taken further south but some of it, along with the money that belonged to the branch bank at Charlotte, was removed to a spot about eighteen miles from town and there buried. The details of the search for a safe spot, the removal of some 3,000 pounds of gold bullion are recorded in the diary of J. H. Carson, grandfather of James H. Carson and McAlister Carson, Sr., of Charlotte.

President Davis rode on horseback into Charlotte on the afternoon of April 18, 1865. He was accompanied by three aides and members of his cabinet. Arrangements had been made with private families in Charlotte for accommodating him and members of his cabinet.

Upon his arrival to Charlotte President Davis gave an impromptu speech to the citizens who had gathered around him.

While the President spoke, John C. Courtnay, from the telegraph office, walked rapidly through the crowd and handed him a telegram, which he held unopened until his talk was finished. Then he silently read the dispatch. “Can this be true? This is dreadful! It is horrible! Can it be really true?” he exclaimed. The dispatch reported the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

President Davis and his cabinet made their headquarters during their stay at the branch of the Bank of North Carolina, located on the west side of Tryon Street, midway between Trade and Fourth Streets. The final meeting of the whole cabinet was held on April 20, 1865, at the home of Mr. William Phifer. This location was made necessary because of the illness of Mr. Trenholm, Secretary of the Treasury who was Mr. Phifer’s guest.

On April 21 the President and much of his cabinet moved further south as Major Erastus C. Moderwell, 12th Ohio Cavalry, moved into Charlotte.

Now the Mountain Island plot thickens.

Following the July 1916 flood that brought an end to the hub of village life that existed around the Mountain Island Mill, the Catawba Manufacturing Company built a steam plant on the banks of the Catawba River to produce electricity. Within a decade, Duke Power purchased the land from the Catawba Manufacturing Company and began the construction of a hydroelectric dam at the site where the mill once stood.

In 1923, the completion of the dam across the Catawba River created Mountain Island Lake. The damming of the Catawba River created more than sixty miles of shoreline and a surface area of more than 3,235 acres. It also meant that the ancient Catawba Indian grave mounds, farm fields and the land where the Mountain Island Mill village sat were now flooded. The Duke Power archives have photos of the homes from the mill villages being both moved and destroyed as the dam was being built. Yet, within a short time, another village was established on the peninsula.

In October 1929, the day before the stock market crash, the first two units of the Riverbend Steam Plant began operation and a new era began by the river.

The Riverbend Duke Power village was a uniquely American community. Once again, an atmosphere of community was created on the land. There were 136 individual houses in the Riverbend Village. Duke Power supplied coal, electricity, garbage pick-up, general yard and roadwork for the homes.

No post office was to open again.

The neighborhood was integrated. Three to four African-American families lived in the village. Jim Harvey Walls was a favorite neighbor. The children called him “Uncle Jim.” He had been born a slave and as a result, Jim Harvey Walls had no idea how old he was.

Uncle Jim loved to tell stories to the children; among his stories was a tale of buried gold. He always began the story in the same way:

“I remember that day as if it was yesterday. My poppa and me spotted a troop of Confederate soldiers coming from the direction of Charlotte. They were escorting a horse drawn wagon down Rozzelles Ferry Road. There were about a dozen soldiers on horse back riding on each side of the wagon. They were in a hurry to get where they were going. The wagon the horses were pulling was so heavy that I could see where its wheels cut deep ruts in the dirt road.
“I saw them turn off the road toward where the steam plant sits today.

“They were gone a pretty long time,” Then he would half-whisper, “long enough to bury something.”

“Then, an hour or so later, they came flying back down the road. They were riding like the Devil himself was chasing them and they didn’t slow down when they got to the big road where they turned towards Lincolnton. The wagon was empty this time and it was flying all about behind them like a June bug on a string.”

He would lean close to the kids and say, “Some say they buried gold that day and some say the gold is still buried deep in the ground. It could be buried beneath your feet where you are standing right now.”

As I look out my dining room window each day, I wonder, is the gold sitting out there on the island or is it covered by the millions of gallons of water that is now the water supply for the City of Charlotte. Perhaps one day some treasure hunter will come rediscover the gold. Until then, I’ll just have to be satisfied with the small bits of postal history that remain.

Confederate Mails on the North Carolina Railroads
The development of railroads did not get underway until 1836 in North Carolina. It did not take long, however, for the railroads to have an impact on the mail system. Numerous examples of stampless covers exist from the 1840’s to the 1850’s and were carried on the Wilmington or Raleigh Railroad. The North Carolina Railroad was started in 1851 with groundbreaking in Greensboro. Its completion allowed for direct rail service across the state. The availability of railroad covers carried on this rail system prior to the Civil War is an indication of mail activity carried on this network. Figures 2 and 3 are examples of early pre-war letters carried on the North Carolina Railroad.

To date, more than 100 covers are known that have markings indicating they were carried on North Carolina’s rail system prior to the start of the Civil War. We know by this time, dedicated rail cars were regularly carrying the mails across North Carolina. A strange occurrence took place with the beginning of the war. Virtually no mail exists with North Carolina markings during the war. It is my intent, with this article, to explore what was happening during this time with the railroad mails.

Few southern railroads during the Civil War were more strategically placed than the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) or played a greater role in determining the fate of the Confederacy. The NCRR was new in 1861, a product of the American railroad boom of the 1850’s. Like other southern roads, it was built with state aid in fact, the State of North Carolina contributed three-quarters of its original capital and held a like proportion of its stock.

The longest railroad and largest business corporation in the state when chartered in 1849 and completed in 1856, the NCRR extended in an arc 223 miles from Goldsboro in the east through Raleigh, Greensboro, and Salisbury before terminating at Charlotte in the west. There it met the Charlotte & South Carolina Railroad which ran southward through Columbia. Further roads connected to Augusta, Georgia, and ultimately New Orleans.

To say that the two roads met is not to say that they joined physically. The NCRR and most of its connecting roads adhered to the 4′8�” gauge that later became standard across the nation. The CSCRR and its connections farther south had the 5′ gauge that was then standard through most of the South. There was no continuous running of cars through Charlotte, as there was between the NCRR and its eastern neighbors. One of these was the Raleigh & Gaston, running northeast from Raleigh to the small rail hub of Weldon, North Carolina, on the Roanoke River. At the NCRR’s eastern terminus of Goldsboro it connected with the Wilmington & Weldon, a north-south road linking Weldon with the state’s largest seaport. From Weldon, through traffic proceeded either northward to Petersburg and Richmond or northeastward to Portsmouth, Virginia, next to Norfolk. At Goldsboro the NCRR also met the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad, another state-controlled road that ran from Goldsboro to the seaports of New Bern and Morehead City/Beaufort. Finally, the NCRR connected at Salisbury, north of Charlotte, with the Western North Carolina Railroad, the third state-controlled road, built to extend westward to Tennessee and there link up with roads extending perchance to the Pacific coast. Actually, the WNCRR was completed in this period only to Morganton, at the foot of the Blue Ridge.

Corporate headquarters were located at the village of Company Shops in Alamance County, at the midpoint of the line. This place was chosen for the road’s repair shops, completed in 1859, and a company town was built around them. Lacking churches, schools, and other amenities, the village did not appeal as a residence for many company officers or mechanics save as their jobs required it. To enhance the quality of life and attract additional workers, in 1863 the road reluctantly gave up its monopoly on land ownership in the town and laid off streets and lots for private sale. The descriptive but dowdy name Company Shops (see NCPHS Vol. 13 2 & 3 for related article) was dropped for one of greater dignity: Vance, after Governor Zebulon Vance, who had just appointed 8 of the 12 directors. Owing to wartime stringency, the town-building efforts came to little and the name Vance was quietly shelved along with the new policy. Today, the town is known as Burlington.

The war that no one wanted came at last. The smoke of the first cannonade drifted over the Carolina marshes upon a pleasant April Sunday, while on the battery at Charleston an excited crowd lustily cheered its own doom.

At Montgomery, the Confederate government realized some of the implications. They knew the South was helpless upon the sea the new nation stood deficient in manpower, the tools at war and the means to produce them. In lieu of numbers and proper munitions, they knew with certain sincerity to trust in solution skills and southern courage.

Given adequate inland transportation facilities, intelligently utilized, the Confederate states would find themselves in possession of a constant opportunity to get there first with the most men. Who first initiated the first deliberate effort to harness the iron horse of war? In April 1861, Postmaster General Reagan called a convention of key railroad officials to meet at Montgomery on the 26th of April.

Reagan’s purpose was logical enough; he desired to arrange definite mail contracts. Even after the outbreak of hostilities, the United States Post Office had continued to function throughout the seceded states, an astonishing situation which the Postmaster General of the Confederacy found as impracticable as it was embarrassing. He could scarcely bring it to an end without prior arrangements with the carriers. But before the railway officers could arrive, so much difficulty had arisen over military transportation that the War Department became interested as well.

The convention met on schedule. Represented were nearly all the companies of the existing Confederacy, save those of Texas and Virginia, a total of four thousand miles of line. Conspicuous among the delegates were Richard R. Cuyler of the Central of Georgia, Charles T. Pollard of the Alabama & Florida and John Caldwell of the South Carolina road; there even appeared three well-known figures from states which had yet seceded: Presidents William S. Ashe of the Wilmington & Weldon, William Johnston of the Charlotte & South Carolina, and Samuel Tate of the Memphis & Charleston. The Montgomery Daily Mail thought it a body “which for worth, ability and capital represented was perhaps the most distinguished that ever assembled in the South.”

The first order of business was a brief communication from the Secretary of War, containing a tentative plan for regulating the movement of troops and military supplies. It was a simple program, conceived in innocence: it strove to order the transportation needs of a warring people in just two paragraphs. It proposed first that soldiers should be carried at a fare of two cents per mile and that military freight should move at “half the regular local rates.” Secondly, the roads were to receive payment in bonds or treasury notes of the Confederate States at par, if ordinary currency were not available. That was all, and the Daily Mail reported that the delegates extended their approval “with a unanimity almost without parallel in the history of conventions.” In the freshness of their patriotism they attached a minimum of qualifying clauses; one provided that the new rates should go into effect on May 1, 1861; another stipulated that troops were to be transported at the official fare only upon presentation of “requisite authority” from the Quartermaster General, or “other proper officer of the Confederate States;” a third merely requested that the Quartermaster General designate the class of certificate to be used.

The convention proved equally receptive to the wishes of Reagan. In a communication which “elicited high commendation from the various members…for its perspicuity and grasp of the whole subject,” the Postmaster General outlined a schedule of payments for carrying the mails that differed sharply from the old United States agreements. The rail carriers of the Confederacy were to be divided into three classes: “The great through lines connecting important points and conveying heavy mails,” to receive an annual compensation of one hundred and fifty dollars per mile; completed railroads carrying heavy local mail, to be paid one hundred dollars per mile; and short, unimportant, or unfinished roads not carrying much mail, which were to be tendered fifty dollars per mile. Though these figures represented reductions in existing payments, the service was to be simplified for all concerned, and the costs thereof reduced, by discontinuing the double daily mails previously operate upon many routes. Payments were to be made, if necessary, in Confederate bonds or treasury notes. No specific time limitation was imposed; in any case, important changes would have to have congressional sanction. The whole of Reagan’s proposal was promptly ratified by the delegates; they added only a recommendation that Sunday mails be dispensed with as soon as practicable and a clarifying section which limited mail deliveries to the precincts of their own depots. The substance of the program presently was enacted into law by the Provisional Congress.

As the war began to heat up, railway labor of all kinds became in short supply. The problem was most acute with skilled mechanics, who were limited in number anyway and whose skills were valuable in the army. Some of the best workers enlisted in the army early in the war or were lured away by higher wages on other roads, in other industries, or even working for the government. Thus the quality as well as quantity of workers diminished. The shortage also extended to common laborers and section hands�usually hired slaves�whose services were sought by urban and rural employers of every kind and by army work details.

Confederate conscription laws in 1862 limited railroad exemptions to higher officials, conductors, engineers, station agents, section masters, mechanics, and two track hands for each eight-mile section of road. In 1864 that was cut one man per section. President Webb protested vigorously at the cutbacks in 1864 and threatened to curtail services. The head of the Conscription Bureau in Richmond believed he had already been too lenient with the NCRR and responded by proposing to cut even more workers from the road than originally mandated.

Wartime wages of railway workers lagged well behind the inflation rate. By 1863 those in North Carolina received less than half in real wages that they had earned in 1860. The NCRR had the temerity in 1862 actually to lower the pay of its section masters, from $33 to $15 per month. But the road did not record its wages for free laborers systematically until 1865, making wartime comparisons impossible.

Wartime travel on southern railroads became high adventure: trains were overcrowded; speeds were lowered to 10 miles per hour, even to walking speed under some conditions; as roadbed and equipment deteriorated; breakdowns were increasingly common and it became almost impossible to adhere to schedules. Many soldiers, consigned to crowed and stifling boxcars, chose to ride on top; others were transported on open flatcars. One army officer estimated that a railway trip from Montgomery to Richmond was as hazardous as picket duty on the Potomac.

On the NCRR, passenger trains quickly grew from two partially filled cars before the war to six to 10 overflowing ones. Their speeds, previously up to 22 miles per hour including stops, were reduced to 17 in the first year of the war and more drastically thereafter. Two daily passenger trains (one a mixed or accommodation train including freight cars) were the rule throughout most of the war. To preserve a semblance of their posted schedules, trains sometimes cut short their stops or even passed rural stations all together. In these circumstances the road eventually gave up advertising its schedules.

Given the conditions described, wartime mail service was irregular at best. Nineteenth-century papers disseminated the news by exchanging with and copying each other. Even after the advent of the telegraph they were largely dependent on the mails�and the railroads that carried the mails�for news in the he form of out-of-town papers and for the circulation of their own papers. they were acutely sensitive to train schedules, therefore, sometimes changing publication times to anticipate the departure of the daily mail train.

Mail service along the NCRR was particularly bad at times of heavy troop movements or crises in supplying the army, when the government impressed trains or even suspended civilian traffic altogether. Newspapers along the road sporadically noted, lamented, or exploded over interruptions, delays, and other inconveniences in the mail service. Often ignorant of the causes, they were inclined to blame the most visible target, the railroad.

Sometimes the train, mail car and all, would arrive more or less on schedule but without any mail, leaving editors to fume helplessly about “gross negligence somewhere.” In April 1864 and again in March 1865 government impressment of all available trains suspended mail service entirely for several days. The Raleigh Confederate finally suspended publication until further notice in March 1865 because of the current “derangement of the mails.”

Through March 1865 the war had been a distant presence, affecting almost everything the railroad did, but still out of sight. In April, destined to be the last month of the war, the NCRR was suddenly at the center of things. for the first time, and virtually from one end to the other, it found itself under enemy attack. It was the Union army’s most important target, next to Johnston’s army. The first blows came from the west, between April 11 and 13. Major General George Stoneman led three brigades of Union cavalry, numbering about 6,000 men, across the mountains from Tennessee late in March, intending to cut off Lee’s escape routes in the event of his expected defeat in Virginia. This entailed, among other things, cutting the Piedmont and NCRR lines between Danville and Salisbury. From Greensboro southward these operations would also cut off the main supply and retreat route for Joseph Johnston’s army near Raleigh. Stoneman’s command first veered northward into Virginia to cut railroads there. Riding hard, his men returned to North Carolina on April 9, coincidentally the day of Lee’s surrender.

Next day Stoneman detached one of his brigades under Colonel William J. Palmer to take Salem and then move eastward to cut the railroads north and south of Greensboro. Stoneman himself proceeded southward with the remainder of his command toward Salisbury.

At Salem, Palmer divided his own command into four columns. One of these, consisting of 100 men, reached the Piedmont’s bridge over Reedy Fork, 10 miles north of Greensboro, on the morning of April 11 and burned it just after Jefferson Davis and his cabinet had crossed it, fleeing southward from Virginia. Palmer’s men missed capturing the entire Confederate government by perhaps as little as half an hour.

Johnston’s position had become hopeless. He met Sherman on April 18 near Durham, both of them traveling part of the way by train from their respective headquarters. The terms that Sherman stipulated that day contained political ramifications that were unacceptable in Washington. Technically, the war resumed. No battles were fought, however, and on April 26 the two generals met again at the same place. the terms reached this time were approved and the war came to an end. It is fitting to note that this event was delayed by two hours while Johnston, coming from Greensboro, was held up by an accident on the NCRR.

Throughout the entire war, it was obvious that mail did flow somewhat haphazard across the North Carolina Railroad. A search of over 1000 remaining North Carolina Confederate covers can find no official post office markings related to mails carried on the railroad.

Howver, two examples of a Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad handstamp are known. Both were official railroad business and did not enter the Confederate mail system. The Dietz Catalogue lists a Confederate North Carolina railoroad marking and a Western North Carolina railroad marking. No price is given for these markings indicating the editors had no record of their sale. In twenty-five years of collecting, I have not seen these covers.

Only two North Carolina Confederate covers are known with a railroad related address, one being a cover from Kitrell, North Carolina carried March 23, 1863 to a North Carolina soldier at Murphy Station GRRR (Gaston & Raleigh Railroad).

Several covers are known addressed to railroad station or depots. Apparently, the post office was within the railroad depot.

The conclusion one comes to is, the conditions of war, such as a shortage of labor, created major changes in how the mails were handled on the railroad. From the beginning of the war, the mail cars that once carried not only the mail, but men to sort and cancel the mail, soon became the only cars to carry mail when possible. One of the many hardships that the south had to survive. By 1869, the mails were once again flowing freely on the North Carolina Railroad. One example of such a cover was mailed from Baltimore to Hillsboro, North Carolina and carried on the North Carolina Railroad. The war created many shortages, one of which was railroad covers for us collectors to collect.

Confederate Postal Operations in North Carolina
To understand the importance of the Confederate mail system, one only has to look at a tattered and dirty envelope carried through the war by a Confederate soldier. Numerous other items could have been put in his knapsack but he chose to keep and carry the letter. Or perhaps read a letter from a soldier where he tells of its importance.

“Your sweet letters are more important to me than anything else. You do not know how it gladdens my heart to hear the messenger say “a letter from your wife. My tent seems a palace and I am as happy as I can possibly be.”

The post office of the Confederate era was not as we know today. Except for major distribution offices such as Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington, the Confederate post office was most likely a table within a room of an individual’s home or in a general store or local tavern. It must be remembered that in many small communities the post office was the focal point of social intercourse. Mail days were one of the only times the people in isolated rural areas came together. They waited at the post office eager for news from a relative, a newspaper or reassuring letters from the war front. There were no e-mail, telephone, radio or television. All news came either by the mail or from someone else verbally.

The Confederate Provisional Constitution, adopted on February 8, 1861, stated the post office department would be supported out of its own revenue. No previous U.S. postal operation had been able to do so. On February 21, 1861, the lawmakers established the Confederate Post Office Department, the head of which would be a full cabinet member reporting directly to President Davis. This Postmaster General’s position became the toughest of all cabinet positions to fill. Two officials from Mississippi turned Davis down. After three requests, John Henninger Reagan finally accepted the position — knowing it would be a tough task.

Reagan realized that he needed to surround himself with qualified postal personnel. Through a friend in Washington, Reagan was able to contact the important Southern employees of the federal post office. They were asked to take positions in the Confederate post office. Within two weeks, Reagan had filled five principal post office slots and filled many minor positions. These employees brought with them not only their knowledge but an estimate $100,000 value in maps, forms, blanks and route book information.

Captain Schwarzman of North Carolina, formerly head of the dead letter office in Washington, became the principal clerk of the Appointment Bureau. He retired from this position in January, 1862. Several additional North Carolinians were appointed to high offices within the postal system. They included Robert Cochran, J. H. Patterson, Willis F. Riddick and Bartholomew Fuller.

On May 20, 1861, North Carolina passed an ordinance of secession and on May 27, 1861, the state entered the Confederacy. On June 1, 1861, the federal postal system was ordered to cease operations in the Southern states.

Reagan’s first actions were to ask existing Postmasters and route agents to stay on at old U.S. contracts. He negotiated a 50% reduction in the railroad rates for carrying the mail, and most importantly he increased the postal rates from 3 cents to 5 cents per half ounce letter going less than 500 miles and 10 cents if further than 500 miles.

It would be October 1861 before the first postage stamps would be available for Southern citizens to use. With Union postage invalid, Postmasters had to revert back to Antebellum times where envelopes were handstamped paid when they were brought into the post office. With a shortage of change, Postmasters were forced to keep accounts of their patrons.

A few Postmasters issued their own stamp as a means of prepayment. The most noted North Carolinian was George Washington Finley Harper, Postmaster of Lenoir. He carved the design of a stamp in a block of holly wood on September 19, 1861. Shortly thereafter he had 500 copies printed. Fewer than 30 of these stamps are known today. Other officers which had provisional stamps or envelopes produced were Chapel Hill, Statesville, Franklin, Milton, Greensboro, Raleigh, Salisbury, Hillsboro and Salem.

At the onset of the war, North Carolina had 1,054 post offices. Except for larger offices such as Raleigh where the Postmaster was paid $2,500 a year, most Postmasters made less than $200 a year. The normal route carrier made a few hundred dollars. Reagan had the foresight to have postal employees exempt from serving in the military. This helped keep employees but in many cases brought about a less than desirable labor force. By the end of the war, soldiers were bidding 1 cent to carry the mail on postal routes in order to get out of fighting. They knew they would be able to do other things once they got home. Women were seldom used in postal positions because only single women could be legally bonded. Thus, only unmarried or widowed women would have been eligible.

By November 1861, out of 1,054 North Carolina Postmasters, only 741 had been reappointed by the Confederacy. Nineteen had been discontinued, thus 264 offices were unaccounted for. Many of these continued to operate as postal markings exist today.

The Postmasters at large offices had numerous duties beyond the mail. The duties of George T. Cooke, Postmaster of Raleigh, is a good example. He had to coordinate the seven mail routes coming into Raleigh with the North Carolina and the Raleigh and Gaston railroad. This was no easy task as troop transport often upset the postal schedules. Cooke also had to oversee several railroad route agents and a messenger service which carried the mail from the train depot to the post office.

Mail was carried on the rail lines in specialty built mail cars. Route agents traveled in these cars to sort and process the mail along the way. This was a most unpleasant job. The North Carolina railroad route from Goldsboro to Charlotte on a good day had 23 stops and took 15 hours. The job was seven days a week. No wonder the agents began to think of their mail cars as home. The Post Office Department refused to allow anyone to ride along with the agents. Deprived of companionship, some agents turned to bottled stimulants which played havoc on the mail delivery.

Most mail cars had no heat and the War Department would quite frequently use the mail cars to ship dead soldiers home. No wonder complaints were the norm for route agents.

In the first year of operation, the post office sold $692,067 in postage stamps. The second year it sold $2,392,332. Much of this had to do with the fact stamps were unavailable much of the first year and the postal rate was increased to 10 cents for any distance on July 1, 1862. However, stamps began to play another important role in the community. Many of the postage stamps being purchased were used as small change in lieu of available coins.

Unfortunately, the conditions of the Confederacy was such that when remedies could be found they had only superficial effects. Shortages in mail sacks, locks, keys, twine and paper began to hinder the postal operation, not to mention the deteriorating railroad system.

Some states became guilty of hoarding their materials. One such instance, which affected the Post Office Department, took place in Cedar Falls, North Carolina. George Makepeace contracted to deliver 2,500 pounds of twine to the Postmaster. Makepeace failed to deliver the twine on account of being engaged in the manufacture of it for the State of North Carolina.

By the end of the war almost everything was in short supply. Letters were reused, envelopes were turned inside out and reused. Paper was in short supply. It was not uncommon to see a letter written in one direction turned sideways and written in the other direction to conserve paper.

When the war ended, the Confederate postal operations had made a profit every year. Something which had never been done by the U.S. postal system. However, in achieving self-sufficiency, the post office sacrificed service for efficiency and economy in the Post Office Department. By the end of the war more mail was being carried outside the system, by soldiers going and coming, than was being carried by the system.

Reagan accomplished his goal of a profitable postal system but the people of the state suffered for it.

The Confederate Postal Operations, Adding Order to a Time of Chaos and Disorder

With South Carolina’s secession from the Union on December 20, 1860, an exciting era of postal history began. For four and a half years the South was in a virtual state of chaos. Few supplies could be brought in and no technology existed to produce even the most basic needs.

The South was an agrarian society with no industrial base A few textile mills were about the only industry that existed. With the federal blockade of the ports, the South became a closed society with little means to produce for itself.

One of the most difficult tasks Jefferson Davis had in forming his new government was locating a Postmaster General. His final appointment, John H. Reagan, had to be asked numerous times before he would agree to assume the duties. Reagan knew the operations of the mail would be the most important job in the new government, yet it would be one of the least rewarding.

The citizens would expect the same level of uninterrupted service they were currently receiving, yet Reagan knew he would have a difficult time fulfilling the expectations of these citizens. Upon taking office, he quickly began soliciting help from Southern sympathizers working in the U.S. postal operations. He hired as many as he could and requested they bring with them everything they could - forms, maps, route agent names - anything that would help in forming this new postal system.

The decision was made that on June 1, 1861 all Union postal operations would cease and the Confederate postal operations would begin. Needless to say, Reagan was not ready for this quick beginning. It would be October of 1861 before the first stamp would be printed and distributed to the post office. Few printers in the South have the ability to print stamps, not to mention the near non-existence of paper making equipment.

This lack of knowledge and technology is a key factor in making Confederate postal history one of the most interesting areas of collecting. Throughout the war the demands did not slow. In order to perform the Southern people had to make do with what they had and “make do they did”!

In the Summer of 1978 I acquired my first Confederate cover (Fig. 1). While purchasing a collection of Confederate covers for resale, the owner ended the transaction by handing me a cover posted in Hamptonville, NC on May 27, 1861 and informing me that this was a gift to me.

May 27 was significant in North Carolina because it was the day it entered the Confederacy, thus a first day of Confederate operations in North Carolina. At this point, Union postage was still valid in the South. Four days later, only Confederate postage would be valid. North Carolina had the shortest time of any state out of the Union prior to the beginning of the Confederate post office - a total of only 11 days.

May 27 was significant to myself because it was my birth date. My customer had discovered this in our conversation and felt I should have this cover for myself. I expect he never thought nearly 20 years later I’d still own that cover and that it would be a key cover in my own personal collection of North Carolina Confederate postal history.

With the absence of postage stamps, the Confederate Postmasters had to find a solution to the problem. Many of them went back to their earlier days of stampless markings, requiring the patrons to bring covers to the Postmaster with no pre-payment ability. This posed a problem in that how was one to pay 5 cents postage when the smallest currency that existed was a 50 cent note?

The Postmaster addressed this need by creating provisional postage. Many Postmasters would prepare in advance envelopes with postage paid markings on them. Figure 2 is an example of a Gaston, NC paid 5 provisional. Only one example of this marking has ever been discovered. The Postmaster used a dateless Gaston handstamp with a paid 5 marking within as a control marketing to indicate the prepayment of five cents. The cover was later returned to the post office with a letter enclosed. The Postmaster then handstamped the envelope with a November 26, (1861) circle date stamp.

The son of Postmaster John Harper of Lenoir was somewhat more creative. He carved a stamp in pear wood and printed 500 copies of a provisional stamp on ruled paper that were sold to post office patrons. An example of one of these stamps can be seen in Figure 3. To date, 27 of these stamps have been recorded, two of which are on similar Davenport female college covers.

As the war progressed, paper supplies became almost non-existent. Individuals used almost every scrap of paper they could find to continue communication. A striking example of this is Figure 4, a wallpaper cover. Contrary to some beliefs, wallpaper was not pulled off the walls to make envelopes. Excess rolls of wallpaper were commercially used to make envelopes and sold to Southern citizens. They made quite attractive envelopes and served their purpose well.

Another example of these creative hard times is Figure 5, an example made from an old map. This was most likely a homemade envelope that put to good use some paper that was no longer needed. I expect most of you thought recycling began in the mid 20th century. Here are two examples of recycling 130 years earlier.

By the end of the war another hurdle was in place. The South had been split into several pieces and crossing through these lines became difficult. The cover shown in Figure 6 is an example of such. The addresser mailed the envelope on March 21, 1865 from Raleigh, NC to Winnsboro, SC. Knowing Sherman had passed through this area already, he placed the following instructions on the envelope: “Should mail communications not be opened to Winnsboro the Postmaster at Chester, SC will please forward this on to Mrs. Cockrell at White Oak Station to be sent.”

On April 26 the army of Tennessee would surrender in Durham, thus ending the war in North Carolina. It would be July before the formal reopening of federal post offices would begin. This, however, is a story for yet another writing.

General Sherman’s March Across North Carolina
General William T. Sherman considered his march through the Carolinas the greatest of his military feats. The South, on the other hand, considered it the crowning display of Yankee barbarity. When Sherman set out from Savannah in January 1865 with 60,000 veteran soldiers, he was convinced that his concept of total war would bring about a speedy end to the war. Before him lay South Carolina, the birthplace of secession and beyond that was North Carolina and then Virginia where Grant and Lee stood deadlocked.

On December 30, 1864 Sherman began his move into South Carolina by moving Major General William T. Ward’s 20th Corp across the Savannah River into South Carolina. Because of bad weather and occasional fire from the few Confederate pickets on the other side, it took over a week to successfully move all 60,079 men, 2,500 wagons and 600 ambulances across. This crossing would, in fact, sever the communication tie of Sherman’s army from their friends and family back home.

For the month of January and February, Sherman’s troops played havoc on the State of South Carolina, burning everything within its path. Being cut off from its supply lines, Sherman ordered “bummers” to fan out from the troop’s path and bring in any usable supplies. The bummers took this as an order that if it wasn’t used or they couldn’t carry it, to burn it. This they did!

Never before or since has the state experienced such destruction, the scars of which can still be seen today, some 133 years later. One phase of Sherman’s plan of total war called for a demoralization of the Confederate armies in the field by the attacks on the home front. Sherman wrote, “The simple fact that a man’s home has been visited by the enemy makes a soldier in Lee’s or Johnston’s army very, very anxious to get home.”

Governor Vance, in fact, did receive letters from troops stationed at the front line stating that they could not complain of their conditions for it was their duty to protect the state but they were in fact concerned for home and family. They asked the Governor to do something for them in order that there be less desertion of the men who were feeling the need to protect their family. Governor Vance, however, could do little.

On March 7 and 8, Sherman’s army began to cross over into North Carolina at the Pee Dee River near Cheraw. Sherman had his Generals issue orders for gentler treatment of North Carolinians. General Slocum’s orders read: “All officers and soldiers of this command are reminded that the State of North Carolina was one of the last States that passed the ordinance of secession. And from the commencement of the war there has been in this State a strong union party…it should not be assumed that the inhabitants are enemies of our government, and it is to be hoped that every effort will be made to prevent any wanton destruction of property, or any unkind treatment of citizens.”

From his headquarters at Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church, General Sherman sent a message to the commanding federal officers at Wilmington to send a boat up the Cape Fear River to meet Sherman in Fayetteville to re-supply him with bread, coffee and sugar. He noted they had an abundance of all else.

On the morning of March 11, General Howard ordered Captain Duncan to take all available mounted men at his headquarters and scout toward Fayetteville. Finding no Confederate resistance, Captain Duncan entered the city and surprised General Hampton. Captain Duncan’s 68 men were not enough to take the city. Eleven Federal’s were killed and twelve captured, including Captain Duncan. This gave General Hampton the necessary warning to move his troops across the Cape Fear River to safety and to burn the bridge before Sherman’s troops could take over.

Mayor Archibald McLean made formal surrender of Fayetteville to Lieutenant Colonel William E. Strong of Howard’s staff then to General Slocum. The United States flag was once again raised over the marketplace.

General Sherman reached Fayetteville on March 11 and set up headquarters in the old U.S. arsenal. On Sunday, March 12, the quietness of the city was broken by the shrill whistle of a steam boat, which meant only one thing, the courier had gotten through safely from Laurel Hill and this was the prompt reply from the Federals in control of Wilmington. Sherman states: “The effect was electric, and no one can realize the feeling unless, like us, he had been for months cut off from all communications with friends.”

The passage up the river of this steamboat, the army tug, Davidson, was unopposed until it was ten miles from Fayetteville, where some small detachments of Confederate cavalry fired upon it from the river banks. Acting Ensign Charles Ainsworth of the Davidson had taken precaution to cover the craft securely with cotton bales and no damage was done.

After a few minutes conference with Ensign Ainsworth about river conditions, Sherman instructed him to ready a start back at 6:00 p.m. and ordered Captain Byers of his staff to get ready to carry dispatches to Washington. He also authorized General Howard to send to Wilmington on the Davidson some of the refugees who were traveling with his army which at this point amount to more than 20,000 predominately black Southerners.

Carrying Captain Byers, the tug departed Fayetteville with a huge pile of mail cluttering its deck. Ensign Ainsworth’s offer to take personal correspondence back to Wilmington brought a tremendous and immediate response from the news hungry soldiers.

On March 14, the tug Davidson again arrived from Wilmington with Brigadier General George S. Dodge of the Quartermaster Corps on board. He reported the badly needed clothing was not to be had at Wilmington but that he brought some sugar, coffee and a bountiful supply of oats for the horses.

Evidently the Quartermasters in Wilmington were not familiar with the successful foraging tactics of the Federal “bummers.” If they had been, they would not have wasted ship space on forage for the animals. 40,000 pairs of shoes, not a cargo of oats, were needed at Fayetteville. One of Sherman’s Quartermasters, peeved at the sight of boat loads of forage, asked one of the vessel’s captains if he would like to return to Wilmington with a load of corn.

The Davidson has been followed up the Cape Fear by two gunboats. These boats joined the gunboat Eolus, which had been in Fayetteville since the evening of March 12.

During the occupation of Fayetteville, several skirmishes took place between Federal reconnaissance units operating across the Cape Fear River and the Confederate rear guard. These engagements were strictly minor in nature but in each affair the Confederate gave ground very grudgingly.

Perhaps few towns in the South surpassed Fayetteville in the ardor and liberality with which she supported the war. After secession became the law of the state, the leading men had been union men, not secessionists, but they were Confederate, and when the war began they rallied to the Southern cause.

Fayetteville received harsh treatment at the hands of Sherman’s army, not only because it was a stronghold of confederate loyalty but also because it allowed the bridge across the Cape Fear to be destroyed. General Sherman issued specific orders as to what property was to be destroyed in Fayetteville. He issued special field orders, No. 28, which instructed the destruction of all railroad property, all shops, factories, tanneries, etc. All of the above property was destroyed and much more. A lady living near Fayetteville told the following story of a visit from Sherman’s “bummers.”
“There was no place, no chamber, truck, drawer, desk, garret, closet or cellar that was private to their unholy eyes. Their rude hands spared nothing but our lives. Squad after squad unceasingly came and went and tramped through halls and rooms of our house day and night. At our house, they killed every chicken, goose, turkey, cow, calf and every living thing, even our pet dog. They took from old men, women and children alike, every garment of wearing apparel save what we had on. Such as it did not suit them to take away they tore to pieces before our eyes.”

So much for General Sherman’s orders for the citizens of North Carolina.

After a week in North Carolina, the invading army had found booty and destroyed property, but they had found little evidence of the supposedly strong union sentiment among the people. One Union major wrote that he found more persons in Columbia who had proved their loyalty to the Union than in all of North Carolina put together. The city of Fayetteville was offensively rebellious, he noted.

By March 15, Sherman and his entire army had crossed the Cape Fear and the march to Goldsboro had begun. Before leaving Fayetteville, Sherman wrote General Schofield at Newbern and to General Terry at Wilmington to move with their effective forces direct to Goldsboro where he expected to meet them by March 20.

On March 15, Sherman’ cavalry under the command of Kilpatrick struck the confederate skirmish lines of Confederate General Hardee. There were no skirmishing on the night of March 15 between Kilpatrick and the confederate troops. At 6:00 a.m. on March 16 the federal troops moved against the Confederate troops led by Taliafello. The Confederate loses were considerable during the morning’s fighting. The Federals pressed Hardee hard all afternoon and up into the early part of the evening but were unable to overtake the Confederate works. Around 8:00 p.m., Hardee started withdrawing his troops and artillery.

General Slochm and Kilpatrick reported their casualties for the day’s fighting at 682 killed, wounded, captured or missing. Of the casualties, 533 were wounded. This was a serious loss because none of the wounded could be left behind. Every injured man had to be carried in an ambulance.

The Battle of the 16th, though seemingly fierce by those participating, was little more than a skirmish as compared to the battle to be fought at Bentonville two days later. It is significant because the stout resistance put up by Hardee in the engagement stopped the advance of the Federal Troops. As a result, the columns became strung out and the distance between them gave General Johnston time to start preparation for his next grand stand, The Battle of Bentonville.

Size Doesn’t Make Rarity - Flat Rock, NC

Collectors of North Carolina Confederate covers are accustomed to seeing a proportionate larger share of covers from Flat Rock, NC than from any other community of its size. Except for the much larger cities during the War, few cities have retained such a large amount of their Confederate era postal history. Considering its location in the high country, it is surprising to see such a large volume of mail remaining.

In comparison to other major North Carolina cities, Flat Rock has retained a surprisingly large number of its Confederate covers. As expected, more covers remain for Raleigh than any other city if you include the provisionals. Flat Rock, however, ranks fourth with over 40 known stampless covers — not counting stampless provisionals, Flat Rock ranks third.

Known Stampless Known Provisionals Total
Raleigh 26 200+ 226+
Greensboro 47 28 75
Salem 34 29 63
Fayetteville 43 0 43
Flat Rock 40 0 40
Charlotte 37 0 37
Asheville 36 0 36
Wilmington 28 0 28

When one compares the population of Flat Rock with other areas of the state, you wonder even more about the volume of mail from this community. The entire county of Henderson had only 10,448 people in 1860, most residing in Hendersonville, the county seat. Wake County had 28,627 people, Guilford 20,056, Mecklenburg 17,374, Forsythe 16,692 and New Hanover 15,429.

The 1869 Branson Business Directory of North Carolina indicates another surprising comparison. Without a doubt, Hendersonville was the seat of commerce for the county. Hendersonville had 20 mills, 15 churches, 6 lawyers and 6 manufacturers. Flat Rock had zero.

Hendersonville Flat Rock
Mills 20 0
Physicians 3 1
Churches 15 0
Merchants 6 1
Hotels 2 1
Lawyers 6 0
Manufacturers 6 0

A look at the development and history of Flat Rock may give some clues to the reasons for this. Because of the difficulty of travel in the mountainous region, development was slow to come to Henderson County. With the completion of the Buncombe Turnpike in 1828, the mountains of North Carolina became comparatively accessible. In 1829 Judge Mitchell King visited Flat Rock for the first time. His visit from Charleston to the Land of the Sky soon became an annual event. When the temperatures of Charleston heated up, he would head to the hills for cooler times. Soon there were many others from Charleston who would spend their summers in Flat Rock — away from the heat of the coastal city.

The trip to Flat Rock from the coast took from 10 to 14 days. The “quality” traveled by coach. Their support help by humbler vehicles. Provision wagons formed a necessary part of the cavalcade. The road into the mountains, while dignified by the name turnpike, ran sometimes up a creek bed, sometimes up a gulch and over any obstacle which it could not go around. A smooth surface was doubtless not one of its good points.

In 1829 the post office was established in Flat Rock with John Davis as its first postmaster. Soon Flat Rock had more than its share of cosmopolitan citizens. Flat Rock had originally been a summer resort for the Cherokees. Here, during unrecorded centuries it was the Indian customs to bring to this area the women, children and oldsters during the summer months while the braves went on hunting expeditions or war parties.

By 1860 when the Civil War began, Flat Rock was commonly called “The Little Charleston of the Mountains.” Many of Charleston’s more affluent had their summer home there. When hostilities broke out in Charleston, many of Charleston’s citizens moved away from the war front. Flat Rock became their safe haven from the war.

It didn’t take long until others realized the mountains were a safe place to hide. Soon the mountains were full of Confederate deserters seeking refuge from the war. In order to support themselves, they soon became a gang of thieves robbing anyone who happened to cross their path. Toward the end of the war, things became so bad troops were stationed in the area to help control these renegades. Many of the residents of the area hid their valuables from these gangs in order to preserve them. In recent years a restoration project at the old hotel in Flat Rock uncovered a hidden room in the hotel that was used to store hotel valuables as well as others of the area.

I have in my collection a cover and letter written to the commander of the troops stationed in the area asking for help in going into the hills to retrieve a wagon that had been stuck in a creek bed. The owner feared going after the wagon because he knew he would be robbed if he did. Even with this concern, the area undoubtedly was considered a safe haven for at one point the Confederate Secretary of Treasury, C. G. Memminger, suggested the capital of the Confederacy be moved from Richmond to Flat Rock. It seems Memminger’s family was there, he knew the area well and felt it would be a safe place for Davis to be. The thought was ruled out because of the inability to run the government because of its inaccessibility.

Perhaps the single most important factor in the volume of covers that remain is the fact of who these residents were. They were of the caliber of Memminger — wealthy, literate, connected individuals who had the ability and desire to save their mail. Two major correspondences — the Middleton family and the Pinckney family have given us many of these Flat Rock covers. Middleton was a businessman involved in shipping from Charleston and Pinckney was a respected preacher in South Carolina.

The Middleton plantation correspondence in itself was quite large producing more wallpaper covers than one can imagine. Most of the illustrations in this article are from the Middleton correspondence. There must be well over 25 wallpaper covers from this Middleton correspondence. A recent single sale had 7 Flat Rock wallpaper covers, 6 from the Middleton family and 6 stampless Flat Rock covers as well as several other Confederate Flat Rock covers.

The Flat Rock stampless covers are both 5 and 10 cent rates with two different 10 cent hand stamp markings being used and a manuscript rate also was used. The known stampless covers are as follows:

Quantity Known
Paid 5 10
Paid 10 Type I with Serif 25
Paid 10 Type II san Serif 1
Paid 10 + 10 Type I 1
Paid MS. 10 3

Total
40

The postmaster responsible for these markings was Peter Stradley. He was appointed Flat Rock postmaster in 1845 and continued through the war until the office was closed around April 30, 1865. The office was reopened June 25, 1866 with Cephas Stradley being appointed postmaster. This was most likely Peter�s wife. On December 9, 1868 Salome Stradley was appointed postmaster and served until 1877. Salome was surely a family member.