CSA 7-R, 5¢ blue pair, margins a bit irregular, tied by blue LYNCHBURG VA. MAR 23 (1863) cover with military address to  Mr. Alexander T. Leftwich, Care Major E. H. Cummins, Staff Genl. D. H. Maury, Vicksburg, Mississippi , manuscript "Signal Corps Court House" endorsement that most likely indicates that the signal corps personnel were located at the Vicksburg Court House, large "Answered" docketing; reduced slightly at left, small edge tear top center and bit of flap missing, still Very Fine and interesting piece of history. $200.

Alexander T. Leftwich (born 1845) served as an enlisted man in the Confederate Signal Corps attached to the staff of Gen. Dabney Herndon Maury at Vicksburg during the siege. Pvt. Leftwich was captured as a POW at Vicksburg when the city surrendered and saw no further service after the Vicksburg surrender. After the war, Leftwich attended the University of Virginia and settled in Baltimore in 1868 where he spent the remainder of his life as a prominent citizen of Baltimore engaged in the tobacco trade and also serving for many years as the Consul for Belgium in Baltimore for which service he was decorated by the King of Belgium in 1913. Period notation on the reverse indicates that the letter was sent by Private Leftwich's father "My dear son I am proud of you A. L." His father was Augustine Leftwich, a prominent landowner in Bedford County, Va. Major Edmund H. Cummins held various staff positions throughout the war. At the time of this cover, he was the AAG to Gen Maury in Vicksburg. After the war, Edmund H. Cummins wrote a book on the history of the Confederate Signal Corps which was published in 1888. (Gen. Dabney Herndon Maury, CSA & Capt. Henry H. Sengstak, CSA).