CSA 7-R, 5¢ dark blue on local paper (Scott 7a), used with manuscript cancel of Junction Va July 22/63 on adversity cover fashioned from lined ledger paper to Capt. James M. Garnett, Care of the Ordnance Officer, Staunton, Va. Garnett was the Ordnance Officer in the Stonewall Brigade. A tiny piece of the back flap is missing. $275.

James Mercer Garnett (1840-1916) was an 1858 graduate of the University of Virginia who served as an Ordnance Officer on Stonewall Jackson’s staff in 1862 and, in 1863, commanded the General Ordnance Reserve Train of the Army of Northern Virginia. He enlisted as a private on July 17, 1861, at Winchester, Va., as a private and mustered into the 1st Company Virginia Rockbridge Light Artillery but was discharged for promotion on Nov. 25, 1861. He rose to Captain by March 15, 1863. He was born in Aldie, Loudoun County, Va., and died in Baltimore, Md. He was a professor at UVA from 1882 to 1896. He studied in Berlin and Leipzig, and in 1870 was appointed president of St. John’s College, Annapolis, Md., where he received an honorary degree of LL.D, the highest honorary doctorate in law. He was also principal in 1867-1869 of the school of his youth, the Episcopal High School of Virginia.