CSA 9, 10¢ blue "T-E-N" with large to huge margins all around, tied by blue PETERSBURG Va. MAY ? circular datestamp on TURNED COVER to Edward S. Joynes, Esq., Care of Dr. L.S. Joynes Box 223, Richmond, Va. with ORIGINAL LETTER from his wife Eliza datelined "Petersburg Va. May 14th, 1863," inside with damaged CSA 7-R, 5¢ blue wide right margin pair and addressed to the same recipient at Pittsylvania C.H. Va., Extremely Fine T-E-N stamp – a real looker. Scott $1,500 as a normal cover. Click here to see pages 2-3 of the letter. $2,000.

Edward Southey Joynes (1834-1917) was an American textbook author and university professor of modern languages, especially German and French. Although he taught at the College of William & Mary before the war, most of his career was spent teaching foreign languages at other Southern universities during the Reconstruction era. He owned six slaves in his native Accomack County in 1860. Joynes was the only faculty member at William & Mary not to become an officer in the Confederate Army. Instead, he became chief clerk for the Confederate Bureau of War, reporting to the Secretary of War and interacting with many Confederate leaders, including Gen. Robert E. Lee, with whom he developed a friendship. He also served as a private in the 3rd Virginia Regiment (Home Guard), but probably did not actually experience combat. Gen. Lee hired him to teach modern languages at Washington & Lee University after the war.