Letter signed by Jefferson Davis, as President of the Confederate States. Richmond, Virginia, 17 September 1863. 2 pages, 8vo. On Confederate States of America, War Department letterhead. Handsomely presented in 25 x 32 1/4 in. mat and frame. 

A significant wartime Confederate document dated 17 September 1863, from the War Department in Richmond, Virginia, requesting presidential approval for the reallocation of $1,500,000 initially appropriated for the "purchase of pig and rolled iron" to instead be used for the "purchase and manufacture of nitre" — a critical chemical component in the production of gunpowder.

The letter is signed by Secretary of War James A. Seddon and formally approved by President Jefferson Davis, whose handwritten endorsement appears at the bottom left of the page: “Approved for reasons given / Jefferson Davis.”

The letter references a supporting justification by Lieutenant Colonel Isaac M. St. John, Chief of the Nitre and Mining Bureau, whose department was tasked with overseeing the Confederate war effort’s mineral and explosives supply chains. This funding redirection, while administrative on the surface, is evidence of the Confederacy’s increasing logistical desperation and growing reliance on domestic nitre production amid tightening Union blockades and resource shortages.

Included in the lot is a typewritten copy, as framed. 

Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio.

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