Item No. 3191731

A short autograph letter signed by Union Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys just three weeks after leading his Pennsylvania division in the last twilight assault against Marye’s Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Humphreys writes to Brigadier General Marsena R. Patrick, the Army of the Potomac’s strict provost marshal general, to request that the sutler providing goods to his own headquarters and to that of one of his brigade commanders, Brigadier General Erastus B. Tyler, be allowed “to land certain stores from the Schooner Three Brothers.”

In a response written on an accompanying leaf, the General Patrick sternly writes, “Those goods, having been cleared for Port Lookout, should be landed there,” referring to Point Lookout, Maryland, downriver and the other side of the Potomac from the army’s encampments at Falmouth. Patrick implies that if the cargo were to come directly to the Army at Fredericksburg, “there is a violation of Revenue Laws.” He closes, “I suppose there can be no objection to their being brought from Port Lookout to this side the River.”

The letter was written on a letter sheet measuring about 5 1/4” x 8”. The two leafs are separated at the center fold. Creased at the original folds. Light foxing. The full transcripts follow:

Head Quarters 3 Div., 5th Corps.
Centre Grand Division—
Jany. 1, 1863.

Will General Patrick allow Mr. H. F. Hibbard, Purveyors to General Tyler’s (1st Brigade, 3d Div.) Head Quarters, and to my own Head Quarters, to land certain stores from the Schooner Three Brothers, of which he has the manifest, and oblige his
Obedient Servt.
A. A. Humphreys
Brig. Genl. Cmg. Div.

Brig. Genl. Patrick
Provost Marshal General
Army of the Potomac

Office Prov. Mar. Genl.
1st Jany. 1863

Those goods, having been cleared for Port Lookout, should be landed there. Otherwise there is a violation of Revenue Laws.

I suppose there can be no objection to their being brought from Port Lookout to this side the River.
M. R. Patrick
Prov. Mar. Genl.