Autograph document signed by Captain William B. Blair. Also signed by Henry R. Howard. San Antonio, Texas, 30 November 1860. 1 page, 4to. Docketed to verso. 

A document billing for slave labor used by the United States Army in Texas shortly before the Civil War. Dated for 30 November 1860, the document bills for $20.00 "for labor of slaves in office of Commissary of Subsistence from the 1st to the 30th of November 1860." 

Written by Captain William Barrett Blair (1817-1883), a West Point graduate who served in the 2nd Artillery during the Mexican-American War and was recognized for gallantry and meritorious conduct at the Battle of Cerro Gordo. In 1850, he was made Captain in the Commissary of Subsistence for the Department of Texas. Stationed in San Antonio, he was responsible for supplying the provisions for the U.S. Army installations in the new  State of Texas. After secession, he was appointed as the Chief Commissary for the Department of the Trans-Mississippi with the rank of Major in the Confederate States Army. 

Documentation of slave labor used in the Federal Army is exceedingly scarce. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Mexican War, Mexican-American War] [West Point, United States Military Academy at West Point] 

Short separation along old folds.