A LETTER SMUGGLED FROM LIBBY PRISON WITH THE BUTTON THAT CONCEALED IT

The survival of both the letter and the button that carried it is remarkable. We are aware of no other Civil War relic that so directly illustrates the ingenuity of prisoners desperate to communicate outside their confinement. 

Autograph letter signed by Wallace F. Randolph, U.S. Regular Army 5th Light Artillery. Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, 12 November 1863. 1 page, 5 x 4 in., framed to 8 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. frame. Writing to frame verso reads: “This letter was written by my cousin Capt. Randolph to Leo Burton’s uncle Gen’l Fry, then Major & was hidden in the button at the top of the frame. / Margaret Jenks Trudy Burton”.

WITH General staff officer’s brass button. 2-piece. Albert GS-13E or GS-14. 

A letter written and smuggled from Libby Prison with the original button it was concealed in. Wallace F. Randolph wrote this letter while confined at Libby Prison between 1863 and 1864. In the letter, Randolph writes to a then-Major Fry about the prisoners’ lack of supplies, saying that “if we had not rec’d boxes from home, we would have starved long ere this.” Included with this letter is the “staff button” Randolph hid the letter in to smuggle it out of the prison. 

Randolph originally mustered into Company F of the 17th Pennsylvania Infantry on 25 April 1861. He mustered out four months later to join the U.S. Regular Army 5th Light Artillery as a second lieutenant. He rose to the rank of captain the day before he was captured on 15 June 1863 during the Second Battle of Winchester. He was first confined in Macon, Georgia, before being moved to Libby Prison. Ultimately, Randolph escaped from Libby on 9 February 1864, going on to continue fighting in the Civil War. He is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Prisoner of War, POW, Andersonville, Libby Prison] [Militaria, Accouterment, Equipment, Uniforms] 

Original heavy folds from smuggling, missing a portion at upper left.