CSA 7, 5¢ blue pair used with pen cancels on neat cover with COBHAM Va. cds (ms. Sep2 [1862] date) addressed to “Mrs.A. L. Rives, Care of Captain Alfred L. Rives, Engineer Office, War Department, Richmond, Virginia.” Light pencil docketing “Mama 1 Sept 1862” up left edge. Ex Thayer, Thacker and John Vagnetti. $200.

Alfred Landon Rives was born in 1830 in Paris, France, the son of William Cabell Rives, the distinguished minister to France. During the War, he was acting chief engineer for the State of Virginia and later for the Confederate States, which position he held until the end of the War as a Colonel. He was one of the two Chiefs of the Corps of Engineers to General Robert E. Lee.