Illustrated lettersheet, approx. 5 x 8 in., with a patriotic red and blue motif of flags and eagle "framing" the image of General Samuel R. Curtis at center. Below the illustration is identification of the subject on a riband bearing the inscription "Curtis." One of the more common patriotic designs, this view is from a series of lettersheet portraits of Civil War generals and is similar stylistically to MILGRAM AL-135. Milgram notes that other examples from this series include Generals Banks, Buell, Burnside, Curits, Halleck, Hunter, McClellan, Pope, Scott, Shields, and Wool. See Milgram, American Illustrated Letter Stationery 1819-1899, p.330, Figure 7-106. 

The 3pp letter is in two different hands, one entry twice-signed "Curt" and dated 19 July 1862, Beech Grove, O[hio], and a second note signed "John," also 19 July 1862, Piqua, O[hio]. Most content is related to farming, however, Curt notes an interesting July 4th celebration in Piqua: "...there was a large celebration in Piqua[.] They had a band of earthquakes (a lot of men dressed in old ragged clothes and riding old poor horses). They were a set off the most comic looking fellows I ever saw [.] They all had false faces on so we could not tell who any of them were." Apparently in playful recognition that the illustration is identified with a similar name, "Curt" has written "my miniature" above the portrait of General Curtis.

Union General Samuel Ryan Curtis (1805-1866) was responsible for the victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge, the capture of Helena (Arkansas), and the repulse of Price's 1864 invasion of Missouri and Kansas. A West Point graduate of the class of 1831, Curtis served as a colonel in the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Mexican-American War. He achieved acclaim before his Civil War service as an engineer, as a promoter of railroad expansion, and as a three-term Republican congressman from the First Congressional District of Iowa. A 2023 biographer suggests that Curtis, an abolitionist, may have freed more African Americans from enslavement during the course of the war than any other individual except Abraham Lincoln.

A scarce version of this illustrated stationery series featuring an important though lesser-studied Union General.

[Manuscripts, Document, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Postal History, Covers, Philately] [Civil War, Union, Confederate]