CSA 11, 10¢ blue (close to enormous margins) tied LEXINGTON Va. JUL 8 CDS on adversity cover fashioned from earlier letter, addressed to James P. Hawkins, Staunton, Va. Small top edge cover fault. Ex John Vagnetti. $180.

James P. Hawkins worked as a messenger for Southern Express from at least 1862 to May 1865. General Orders No. 77, dated October 22, 1862, exempted Southern Express employees from conscription. He worked as an agent on the Virginia Central and the Orange & Alexandria railroads and wrote about his wartime work. His diaries are housed in Navarro College's Pearce Civil War Collection. Hawkins’ wartime express activity is available on historynet.com from a reprint of an article by Julie Holcomb in the May 2003 issue of America's Civil War.