CSA 3, five singles (couple with small edge faults) tied triple strike of bold MARIETTA / GEO. // APR / 16 [1864] cds on legal sized cover to Wm. F. Ritchie, Esq, Richmond, Va. with manuscript “Due 10” for underpayment. Docketing on back flap indicates it was sent from “S. Isidor[e] Guillet, Lieutenant & Post Adjutant, Marietta, Geo Ap[ril] 16/64.” FASCINATING BACK STORY of young officer killed at the Battle of Columbus on the same horse on which three of his brothers were also killed. Story in one of my upcoming columns. Cover with strip of five CSA 3 catalogs $13,500. $5,500.

Guillet, S. Isidore (also shown as S. J. – handwritten issue, no doubt) Sergt. Co. A, Crescent. Regiment. LA Infantry Enlisted Oct. 31, 1862, Camp Avery. Rolls from Nov., 1862, to Feb., 1863, Present. Also on Rolls of New Co. E, 20th La. Inf. 2nd Lt. Rolls from July, 1863, to Oct., 1863, Absent, sick, in Hospl. Rolls from Nov., 1863, to Aug., 1864, Absent, sick; unfit for duty in field, order of Gen. Bragg. Roster dated March, 1865, Elected 2nd Lt., May 16, 1863. Roll for March and April, 1865, Absent, detached, order of Gen. Hardee, Nov., 1863. Guillet, S. J., Pvt. Co. C, Confed. Grds. Regt. La. Mil. Roll for March and April, 1862 (only Roll on file), En. March 8, 1862, New Orleans. Information from Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands, 1920. Also shown as Co. C. LA Confederate Guards Infantry. In Foreigners in the Confederacy, Guillet is noted as a German who was Aide-de-Camp to Col. von Zincken, although some dispute that he was aide-de-camp to von Zincken. His brother Charles was a Major of the 20th and one place indicates that his brother E.P. was its adjutant. This cover seems to dispute that. Furthermore, on findagrave.com his gravestone is shown with the inscription “Adjutant Isidore Guillet who fell in defense of this city on the very memorable night of April 16, 1865. Never breathed there a more gallant soldier, never did a more heroic dauntless chivalric spirit speed back to its maker than his whose noble remains now calmly rest within this tomb.” He is buried in Linwood Cemetery, Columbus, Georgia. Ancestry.com reveals that he was fatally shot on the same horse on which three of his brothers had been previously killed. He willed the animal to a nephew as he died the following day from his wounds. Bad luck horse!

William F. Ritchie was a printer and publisher in Richmond and served as the Public Printer for the state of Virginia. His father, Thomas Ritchie, founded the oldest newspaper in Richmond, The Enquirer, for which his son William served as editor for a period. The Enquirer was renowned for its “restrained and balanced” reporting, and earned a reputation as the “Democratic Bible.” While the paper gradually turned pro-secession under the editorial leadership of O. Jennings Wise (son of former Democratic Virginia governor Henry A. Wise), William F. Ritchie maintained a political middle ground until the raid at Harpers Ferry.