Details
TYLER, JOHN, President. Autograph letter signed in full MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, n.p. [probably Sherwood Forest, Virginia], 27 April 1861. 1 page, 8vo, edges neatly inlaid, watered silk lined brown morocco gilt folder matching quarter morocco gilt folding slipcase.
A FORMER PRESIDENT TO ROBERT E. LEE, RECOMMENDING THE SON OF A UNION NAVAL COMMODORE FOR A POST IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
An especially poignant and vivid example of the fateful divisions between family members caused by the extreme passions of the Civil War. Former President Tyler had served as chairman of a 21-state convention called at the suggestion of Virginia to seek a compromise with the new Lincoln government. When that mission failed he urged Virginia to secede, which it did, on 17 April. Tyler then became a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy and was elected in November to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before being seated. Here, ten day's after Virginia's secession, he writes to Lee, who on April 20 had resigned from the Army of the United States and, three days later, accepted the post of Major General and commander of the military and naval forces of the state of Virginia (see notes to lot ). "I commend to your notice and kind attention Mr. William D. Porter a grandson of Commodore [David] Porter, the brave and intrepid defender of the Essex ag[ain]st the combined British fleet, off Valparaiso during the War of 1812. Mr. Porter desires to enter the military service of Virginia and I do not doubt would bravely assist in upholding our flag."
David Porter (1780-1843), himself the son of an officer in the U.S. Navy, entered the Navy in 1798 and subsequently served in the war with Tripoli (in which he was twice wounded and captured) then commanded the U.S. Essex in the Pacific during the War of 1812. In March 1813, he was forced to strike his flag to a superior British force in "one of the most desperate defenses made by a naval ship during the war" (DAB). Paroled, he captained the experimental iron-clad warship the Fulton, then was commissioner of the Navy Board, and in later years charge-d'affaires in Turkey. Porter became surrogate father and mentor to David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870), and among his own ten children are two of the best-known American naval commanders of the Civil War: Admiral David Dixon Porter (1813-1891), who fought at Vicksburg and Fort Fisher, and William D. Porter, Sr. (1809-1864) who commanded gunboats on the Tennessee and fought at Forts Henry and Donelson, rising to the rank of Commodore.
Tyler's writes on behalf of a son and namesake of Commodore William D. Porter, Sr. It is known that William Jr. and another son of this distinguished Union officer decided, unlike their father, uncle and half-uncle, that their loyalties lay with the state of Virginia and the Confederate cause.
A FORMER PRESIDENT TO ROBERT E. LEE, RECOMMENDING THE SON OF A UNION NAVAL COMMODORE FOR A POST IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
An especially poignant and vivid example of the fateful divisions between family members caused by the extreme passions of the Civil War. Former President Tyler had served as chairman of a 21-state convention called at the suggestion of Virginia to seek a compromise with the new Lincoln government. When that mission failed he urged Virginia to secede, which it did, on 17 April. Tyler then became a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy and was elected in November to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before being seated. Here, ten day's after Virginia's secession, he writes to Lee, who on April 20 had resigned from the Army of the United States and, three days later, accepted the post of Major General and commander of the military and naval forces of the state of Virginia (see notes to lot ). "I commend to your notice and kind attention Mr. William D. Porter a grandson of Commodore [David] Porter, the brave and intrepid defender of the Essex ag[ain]st the combined British fleet, off Valparaiso during the War of 1812. Mr. Porter desires to enter the military service of Virginia and I do not doubt would bravely assist in upholding our flag."
David Porter (1780-1843), himself the son of an officer in the U.S. Navy, entered the Navy in 1798 and subsequently served in the war with Tripoli (in which he was twice wounded and captured) then commanded the U.S. Essex in the Pacific during the War of 1812. In March 1813, he was forced to strike his flag to a superior British force in "one of the most desperate defenses made by a naval ship during the war" (DAB). Paroled, he captained the experimental iron-clad warship the Fulton, then was commissioner of the Navy Board, and in later years charge-d'affaires in Turkey. Porter became surrogate father and mentor to David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870), and among his own ten children are two of the best-known American naval commanders of the Civil War: Admiral David Dixon Porter (1813-1891), who fought at Vicksburg and Fort Fisher, and William D. Porter, Sr. (1809-1864) who commanded gunboats on the Tennessee and fought at Forts Henry and Donelson, rising to the rank of Commodore.
Tyler's writes on behalf of a son and namesake of Commodore William D. Porter, Sr. It is known that William Jr. and another son of this distinguished Union officer decided, unlike their father, uncle and half-uncle, that their loyalties lay with the state of Virginia and the Confederate cause.