CSA 11c, 10¢ bluish green (4 huge even margins) used with manuscript cancel of Oakville Va Nov 24 on cover to Miss Mary F. Branch, Care of Mr. Jas. R. McTyre, Coalfield, Chesterfield Co. Va., fresh, Very Fine. Ex David Burton. $180.

COALFIELD-MIDLOTHIAN, VIRGINIA: Coal was first discovered in Chesterfield during the early 1700s near Chesterfield County Seal Manakin Town, a French Huguenot settlement. Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, stated that the quality of Chesterfield’s coal was excellent. Eventually, mine workers settled in the vicinity of Midlothian, responding to the opportunity for employment in Chesterfield County’s coal pits. Civil War Coal: coal from Chesterfield was crucial to the capital of the Confederacy. The coal fed the crucial Tredegar Ironworks, a primary cannon manufacturer of the South. The Union knew about the Chesterfield coal mines, and in 1864, a union cavalry party led by General August Kautz staged a raid on Coalfield Station, a key point on the Richmond and Danville Railroad. Although the raid was bad, it could have been worse. Only the objections of a Union officer prevented the setting on fire of a nearby coal mine, an act that would have caused problems for future generations. Much more information online