US 3¢ star-die #U27 tied grid with matching FARMVILLE / Va. // MAY / 27 / [1861] cds on clean USPOD watermarked entire addressed to Dr. Henry A. Mettauer, Macon, Georgia. Confederate Use of US Postage (only 3 weeks possible). CCV $300. Mettauer was an eminent surgeon and botanist. Detailed medical and military biography from unpublished database, included with lot courtesy Hambrecht & Koste biographical register of physicians who served the Confederacy in a medical capacity. $250.

Dr. Henry Archer Mettauer (1826-1913) was born in Prince Edward County, Va, the son of Dr. John Peter Mettauer, and received his M.D. degree in 1849 from the Medical Department of Randolph Macon College, Clarksville, Va. He accepted appointment and was confirmed by CS Senate as a Surgeon in 1862. Although a residence of Farmville, Virignia, he was a surgeon with the 6th Georgia, Maj. M.A. Rowland’s Battalion Conscipts, Staff of General A.H. Colquitt. Featured in F. T. Hambrecht's article in the March-April 1987 issue of The Confederate Philatelist. His father was Dr. John Peter Mettauer (1787-1878) who founded the Prince Edward Medical Institute in 1836 and performed many medical "firsts." For his original work in congenital deformities he was called “America's first plastic surgeon” and "a genius of his time," in an article describing his innovations in cataract surgery.