Paroled Prisoner's Pass. Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Signed by  J. H. Evans. Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 10 April 1865. 1 page, 8 x 3 inches. 

A parole pass for Jefferson M. Jones who served in Company A of the 3rd Georgia Infantry, signed off by J. H. Evans. of the same regiment. Dated 10 April 1865, this pass was given to Jones and other Confederate soldiers alike upon the surrender of the Confederate army and the subsequent end of the Civil War.

Historian Roger Futrell remarks that these parole passes "symbolized President Lincoln's desire to unify the Nation," allowing Southern soldiers to lay down their arms and return home. In the last meeting between Lee and Grant, held on horseback, General Lee requested that each soldier be provided an individual "paroled prisoner's pass" so that they could return without fear of being branded a deserter. Each soldier was issued a pass once they swore the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. Official war records list 28,231 Confederate soldiers who were paroled at Appomattox Court House between 9 and 15 April 1865.

Printed on short notice. Field presses were set up inside the Clover Hill Tavern and printers worked long hours to produce nearly 30,000 passes. They were printed on whatever paper was available. This example, like many, is printed on lined paper.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]

Professionally conserved, encapsulated with Japanese tissue