US #26, 3¢ dull red tied partial NEW ORLEANS / LA. cds on cover withprinted Duncan, Payne & Co., 18 Union Street, New Orleans corner card addressed to Col. John Duncan, Jackson, Miss. with docketing of contents as “L. A. Duncan, N.O. (New Orleans) Jany 8 / 61 J[ackson Jany] 11 / 61 thus received into Independent Mississippi which seceded January 9, 1861.  $150.

Col John Duncan (1812-1872) was born in New York City after his parents emigrated from Scotland. He moved South to Grenada, MS, in the 1830s to work with his brother, William Duncan, and his brother-in-law, Charles Stewart in their dry-goods store. By 1856, John had become a wealthy and respected landowner and attorney. October 16, 1856, he married Lucy (Howell) Duncan, daughter of Edmund Garnett Howell and Charlotte (Walker) Cordey. Through this marriage, Duncan was connected by blood and marriage to many of the wealthy planters in the Natchez area. During the Civil War, he personally financed the Duncan Riflemen, a part of the 45th Mississippi Infantry. He was a personal friend of President Jefferson Davis, who was a frequent guest in his home, Casa Mia, in Jackson, Miss. In his diary, Davis writes that John made a request to buy cotton from the CSA to sell to England. Davis was considering appointing John Duncan as ambassador to England.