South to North blockade cover [Portland, Maine Exchange Office] and January 1, 1863 LETTER from Mott - Bostick correspondence; letter dated from Greenville, SC and sent by blockade runner from Charleston (as mentioned in text) directly to a forwarding agent or correspondent where cover entered British mails with stamp (now cut out) and Liverpool February 26, 1863 postmark; entered U.S. mails with Portland, Me Am Pkt Paid 24 exchange datestamp. The 24¢ rate included delivery to Hamilton, NY. The blockade-runner Leopard departed Charleston on January 14, 1863 to Nassau and likely carried this letter. Cover noted “No. 10” up right side.

The Mott-Bostick correspondence is well-known to serious students. This letter is from Maria Bostick, wife of a Confederate soldier, and her mother, Mrs. Smith Mott in Hamilton, NY. This 4-page letter says, in part, “Hannah Ford’s husband…has frequent opportunities of sending letters by steamers running the blockade. He offers to let me know and use the privilege of sending letters…” Most letters from this correspondence went by Flag of Truce across the lines. This and one other are known to have been run through the Federal blockade at Charleston to England with a possible routing via Nassau, Bahamas. This correspondence is the subject of the Jan-Feb 1974 Confederate Philatelist in Dr. Edward Greenwald’s article “Civilian Flag of Truce Mail - The Mott-Bostick Correspondence” which describes the correspondence as well as explanatory flag of truce tables.  [ME] [NY] $400.