SUMMITT/MISS “tobacco juice brown" (degraded black) balloon cancels plus manuscript "Due 10" in pen as well as blue crayon “Due” on Executive Office, Shreveport, La. Semi-official imprint on cover to “Gen. Mansfield Lovell, Columbia S. Carolina” - two clear strikes of docketing on back indicates it was sent March 15, 1864, and that the sender was Governor H. W. Allen, slightly reduced at right and small flap faults, otherwise Very Fine, Rare and Showy use to and from serving Major General Lovell and immediately former Major General Allen, then Governor of Louisiana, during the War. “Favor of W. D. Winter, Esq.” who apparently carried the letter from Shreveport to Summitt, was a Louisiana planter appointed by Gov. Allen as an agent to obtain supplies from the families of soldiers and for the State Guard. $1,500

Major General Mansfield Lovell born in the District of Columbia in 1822; graduated West Point in 1842 and commissioned in the US artillery; wounded / brevetted during Mexican War; resigned from the army in 1854. He was appointed major general in the Confederate army on October 7, 1861 and took command of the defenses of New Orleans to help create the Confederate River Defense Fleet. He was known for enjoying alcohol and the pleasures of hotel life. Having bragged about New Orleans' defenses, he unwittingly provided the information the Union needed to drive the Confederacy out of New Orleans.

Governor Henry Watkins Allen (1820-1866) Member of Texas state house of representatives, 1853; Brigadier General in the Confederate Army (also serving as Major General in the Louisiana Militia at the same time) during the Civil War until January 10, 1864, when he resigned to become Governor of Louisiana, 1864-65. He was severely wounded at Shiloh. Allen Parish, Louisiana, is named for him. In his suppression of the liquor traffic between Mexico and the Confederacy, Governor Allen used dictatorial powers, and succeeded in a way that was never before known. Perhaps his personal knowledge of Lovell’s liquor problems had a little to do with that.