TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COURIER or COURTESY USE: US #27 3¢ star-die entire to Mrs. Rowland B. Smith, Camden, Arkansas, in faint pencil with manuscript directive at lower left “Fav[or] Courier.” Sent from an officer in Co. I, 18th Arkansas Infantry home to his wife, Rose. Uncanceled adversity use of demonetized U.S. envelope, which never passed through the mails, unknown date. Like all the other Arkansas regiments raised in the first wave of recruiting in 1861, the regiments were taken into Confederate armies east of the Mississippi River. Water staining which is likely a result of that hazardous journey across the river. Ex Matz and Clippert. $300.

Rowland B. Smith: Second Lieutenant (1828-1906)—Enlisted in Co. I, 18th Arkansas Infantry, at Camden, Arkansas, March 15, 1862; appointed second lieutenant, March 15, 1862; detailed as acting assistant commissary, Second Brigade, Third Division, Army of the West, 1862; no further information; born in Arkansas, circa 1828; listed in Ouachita county 1860 census with wife Elizabeth Rose ; occupation merchant; filed Federal land patents in Ouachita county in 1849, 1850, 1851 and 1856; after the war was a member of Hugh McCollum Camp, United Confederate Veterans, Ouachita county. His letters are housed at the Arkansas Studies Institute with the following bio: “This collection contains letters written by Rowland B. Smith during his first nine months of service as a Confederate Army officer. The letters were written to his wife, Elizabeth Rose Smith (26), and to his children, Mary Sidney "Sadie" Smith (12) and Hamilton "Buddy" Smith (7). The collection also contains a few other letters from various people to the Smiths. Rowland B. Smith was born near Camden, Arkansas, on December 17, 1828. Smith was elected sheriff of Ouachita County in 1856; he left that office to join the Confederate Army in March 1862. Smith spent the following months in Captain Sutherland's Company of the 18th Arkansas Infantry (aka Carroll's Regiment), 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, Army of the West. He quickly advanced to the rank of Major and became the commissary supply officer on staff of Cabell's Brigade. He later served on General Dockery's staff and was severely wounded at the Battle of Marks' Mill.”