CSA 2a, 10¢ light blue, clear to mostly large margins all around tied to homemade cover by partial RICHMOND / Va. // NOV / 10 cds addressed to Wm. L. Owen, Esq., Black Walnut, Va., faint vertical file fold well away from stamp or postmark. Ex Toaspern. [VA] $190.

Hon. William Lee Owen (1809-1881) was a wealthy merchant and planter who represented Halifax County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1876 to 1881. He owned 45 slaves as of the 1860 Census and left an estate valued at $999,999. at the time of his death. Owen was opposed to the War. He was a businessman with extended contacts, and he thought that the South could not win against the industrial power of the northern states. As the war became inevitable, he managed to protect some of his assets; as a result, he was not as impoverished by the war as many people were.