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AUCTION 50: ANTIQUE MILITARIA, FALL 2024
Lot 177:
A pair of love letters sent to Confederate Major General Pierce M. B. Young during the ‘Wilderness Campaign’ by a certain Mary Carroll Brooks, daughter of the infamous U.S. Congressman Preston Smith Brooks, the man who beat prominent Senator Charles Sumner with a cane after Sumner delivered a rousing anti-slavery speech in front of Congress. This event polarized the nation even further and helped lead to the eventual war.
Maj. Gen. Young, in addition to being the youngest Major General of the Civil War, went on to become a four term Congressman and Consul General of the United States in St. Petersburg, Russia, among many other important diplomatic postings. Mary C. Brooks ended up marrying another man after the war despite her professed love for General Young, while General Young himself appears to have never married.
Confederate States of America – May and June 1864
Each Leaf: 7 7/8 x 5 in., (20 x 12.7 cm.); June Letter Unfolded: 8 x 10 in., (20.3 x 25.4 cm.)
Condition: Light foxing consistent with age. Stain from pressed flower on ‘June’ marked letter. Part of fingerprint visible in smudged ink on the back of the ‘June’ letter.
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