CSA 11, 10¢ blue (4 margins, faulty) used with manuscript cancel and matching ms. Mattoax Va Feby 9th on gray all-over illustrated college cover of Richmond Female Institute (VA 13, CV $750) addressed to Charles H. Winston Richmond Virginia, the college president. There appears to be an earlier stamp affixed under this one and a light penciled address under the one in pen. This points to an earlier use. Slightly reduced at top and part of top back flap missing. Ex David Burton. Sold on its own merits. $350.

Charles Henry Winston (1831-1918) was the son of Peter Winston and Ann Eliza Woodard Winston. In 1851, he was a student at the Warren Green Academy in Warrenton; he graduated Hampden-Sydney College in 1854, and received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Virginia in 1857. In 1858, he was named Vice-President of the Richmond Female Institute. He became President there in 1859 and held that position until 1873. He then was named Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Richmond College. He was much in demand as a lecturer on scientific, educational and religious subjects. During the last two years of the Civil War, he was Superintendent of the Confederate Nitre Bureau, for which he was commissioned a major of cavalry. He was instrumental in the establishment of a plant to manufacture sulfuric acid in Charlotte, N.C. Richmond Female Institute was used during the war as CS Hospital #4, for officers. From June 1863 to February 1865. It was built in 1853 and demolished in 1924. It was designed to look like what, at that time, was perceived to be an Italian villa.