Confederate General Alexander P. Stewart (1821-1908) ALS to the sister of Captain William Henry Tabb, dated July 2, 1862, in response to her letter begging him to intervene for his release from Johnson’s Island Prison. Tabb and many soldiers in his regiment, the 14th Mississippi Infantry, were captured at the Battle of Fort Donelson. Stewart had been one of Tabb’s instructors at the Cumberland University Law School in Lebanon, TN, prior to the Civil War. 2 pages front and back. 5 in x 7 1/2 in. Note: this letter is one of many pieces of ephemera in this auction related to CSA Capt. W.H. Tabb, his sister Mary “Mollie” Tabb Moore (1841-1921) and his younger brother, Private Thomas Anderson Tabb (1840-1861), who died less than a year before this letter was written.

Stewart writes: “Your brother [William] I remember very well and with much esteem and affection and would with great pleasure do him any favor in my power. I will write, today, to the Secretary of War on his behalf; but unless the recent great and decisive victory at Richmond (on which I offer you and your family my most hearty congratulations) shall produce a change in the Federal policy, there will not be much hope of his release until the war closes- which cannot be very distant. The Federal government refuse to make regular exchanges of prisoners and ours refuse to make any except in the regular way- a determination doubtless right in itself, not withstanding it may bear hard upon ourselves and our friends who have been so unfortunate as to be captured… We have passed through a severe ordeal but the light begins to dawn and the prospect ahead of us to brighten. We will yet by the blessing of God achieve our independence- a prize only to be attained by great sacrifice and suffering and worth all that it cost us and may yet cost… My own home is in the hands of the enemy but I hope to soon now recover it. My family have been wanderers, are now at Atlanta, Georgia, and, I am pleased to see are well a week since.”

Note: Capt. William H. Tabb was eventually released in a prisoner’s exchange in late 1862/early 1863. He returned to his unit and was killed outside Atlanta in 1864. General Alexander Peter Stewart was born in Rogersville, Tennessee. He led troops at the Battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Stone’s River, Perryville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville. Failing to find sustainable work after the war in Tennessee, Stewart eventually left his home state of Tennessee and moved to Missouri, where he became an insurance executive. He later served as Chancellor of the University of Mississippi and commissioner of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

PROVENANCE: The Estates of Thomas Maxfield and Sara McIntyre Bahner, by descent in the family of Mollie Tabb Moore, sister of Capt. William Henry Tabb.

CONDITION: Signature is clear and bold. Paper lightly toned, overall very good condition.