CSA 8, 2¢ brown red tied bold CHARLESTON S.C. DEC 22 186- CDS on fresh drop cover to Col. R. B. Rhett, Charleston, So Ca.; opening tear at top right, otherwise Very Fine. $900.

Robert Barnwell Rhett (1800-1876) was an aristocratic politician who served as a deputy from South Carolina to the Provisional Confederate States Congress from 1861 to 1862, a member of the US House of Representatives from South Carolina from 1837 to 1849, and US Senator from South Carolina from 1850 to 1852. He worked closely with John C. Calhoun. While not a member of the Southern Convention, he did lobby to defeat measures he deemed too conciliatory toward the North, and he was chosen by the convention to compose an address to the people of the slaveholding states. He failed, however, to secure the presidency of the Confederacy and was ignored in the Cabinet appointments.