LINCOLN GENERAL HOSPITAL, WASHINGTON DC: US 65, 3¢ rose tied by a Washington DC target duplex, Oct. 19 (1864), on a cover to J. P. Chandler, United States Treasury, Boston, Mass. Enclosure from "Edwin H. McCaleb, Jr., 1st Lt. Adjutant 12 Miss Regt, Army of Northern Virginia, 'Prisoner of War'" requesting his letters be addressed care of "Asst. Surgeon J.C. McGee, U.S.A. in Charge Lincoln Hospital Washington, D.C." Docketing on reverse acknowledges "articles sent Edwin H. McCaleb, Oct 19, 1864", Very Fine. ONLY FOUR RECORDED. $1,100.

Edwin Howard McCaleb, Jr. (1843-1909) was born at Cold Springs Plantation, Claiborne, Miss. He had recently been a student at Oakland College in Lorman, Miss., when he enlisted as private, Company K, 12th Mississippi Infantry in 1861 along with his father and brother. He was appointed Sergeant Major of the regiment, date not known. He was wounded in the arm in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He was appointed acting adjutant in April 1863 and promoted to First Lieutenant and Adjutant in May 1864. He was wounded again, through the lung, at the Weldon Railroad, Va., on 21 August 1864, "left for dead on the battlefield", and captured. He was treated at the Lincoln Hospital in Washington, DC, then held at the Old Capitol Prison, and at Fort Delaware. He was paroled and exchanged at City Point, Va., on 25 April 1865. After his release, he formed a Company of Cavalry at Greensboro, NC, and they escorted President Davis to Washington, Ga., by 21 May, then made their way independently as far as Meridian, Miss., where they were captured and paroled on 28 May 1865. After the war, he went to New Orleans and studied law; he was admitted to the bar in January 1866. He was active in local politics and was elected to a two-year term as City Attorney in 1876. He married Marie Idealie Collens (1840 or 1841-1919) in 1866 and they had 10 children together. Sources: Compiled Service Record via the Historical Data Systems database. His wounding at Sharpsburg from a casualty list on the front page of the New Orleans Times-Picayune of 29 October 1862. Details from a sketch in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana (Vol. 2, 1892) and his listing in the Historical Catalogue of the University of Mississippi, 1849-1909 (1910). His death and other information from the MacKillop (McCaleb) Clan of Scotland and the United States (c. 1965). Some genealogists have his birth year as 1842.