Hand-addressed mailing cover by Jefferson Davis while imprisoned at Fortress Monroe, 5.75 x 3.25, addressed by Davis to his wife, "For Mrs. Varina Davis, Augusta, Georgia," and further addressed in the lower left, "To Hon. J. Speed, U.S. Atty. Genl., Washington, D.C." Undated by circa August 1865-May 1866, when Varina was permitted to move into an apartment at the fort. Annotated at the top in pencil: "Was erased when rec'd by J. S." In fine condition, with an opening-related tear to the left edge.
Following the collapse of the Confederacy in May 1865, Jefferson Davis was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Virginia, under the watch of Major General Nelson A. Miles. His correspondence while in captivity was extremely limited: in August 1865, Miles received orders that 'any letters which Mr. Davis desires to send to his wife must relate only to family matters and be first submitted to the Attorney General's inspection.' As explained in The Prison Life of Jefferson Davis by John Joseph Craven: 'The prisoner complained bitterly of the restriction imposed by General Miles on his correspondence with his wife; certain subjects, those perhaps of most interest, being forbidden to both...He pictured the idle young staff-officers, or yet more pitiful clerks in the Law Department at Washington, grinning over any confessions of pain, or terms of endearment, he might be tempted to use; and this thought embittered the pleasure such correspondence might otherwise have conferred."
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