CSA 3, 2¢ green, large margins all around, some gum staining, tied by RICHMOND / Va. // DEC/ 26 / 1862 cds on legal-size drop cover with scarce "Confederate States of America Adjutant and Inspector General's Office" semi-official imprint (CSA Catalog type WD-AG-07), addressed to [Col] William H. Hidell who was private secretary to Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, docketing on reverse "Gen. S. Cooper Adjt. & Insp. Gen. Dec. 26, 1862", missing back flap as usual for this correspondence, some wear and staining, still a very presentable and extremely rare use. It appears that a pair of stamps was originally under the 2¢ stamp. It was not uncommon for pairs of 5¢ stamps or single 10¢ issues to overpay the drop use when carried to Richmond from out of town by courier and dropped in the mail for local delivery. My personal speculation is that a pair of uncanceled stamps was removed for use elsewhere and the appropriate 2¢ drop rate stamp use instead. Fascinating backstory which will be written up in one of my columns. $1,850.

General Samuel Cooper (U.S.M.A. 1815) was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, June 12, 1798, and served in the army, receiving the brevet of colonel for his services in the Mexican War. In March, 1861, he resigned his commission, and went immediately to Montgomery and tendered his services to President Davis, by whom he was the next day appointed adjutant-general of the Confederate army, of which he was the ranking officer, standing first on the list of generals. He was appointed general on May 16th, but, owing to his age, took no active part in the field. He was adjutant and inspector general of the Confederate States army throughout the entire war. When President Davis fled Richmond after Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox, Cooper fled with him.

Colonel William Henry Hidell (1843-1906) served as the personal secretary to Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America. Hidell graduated from University of Georgia 1860. He was married to Dora Robinson. William Hidell is buried in The Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA. Hidell's daughter, Marie Louise Hidell, is also interred there. She was a nurse who served with the Public Health Service in Cuba and the Panama Canal Zone. She was assigned to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital in 1918, and succumbed to influenza during the pandemic that year. A son, born in 1870, was named Alexander Stephens Hidell in honor of the Confederate VP; he died in 1960.