LAKE CITY FLA APR 14, circular datestamp with matching DUE 10 (type F, CCV $350) handstamp on soldier's cover endorsed D.B. Harris, Col. of Engineers addressed by him to his wife at Thomson's X Roads Louisa County Virginia; no flap and reduced slightly at top, ex Malpass and Briggs. $225. 

Col. David Bullock Harris (1814-1864) was a prominent engineer in the Confederate States Army, mostly serving with Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. He was known for his work in planning and constructing fortifications such as those at Vicksburg, Charleston and Petersburg. He was a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point in 1833 and served as an engineering instructor there for two years. By 1845, he had acquired Woodville, a plantation in Goochland County, Va., where he was a tobacco farmer immediately prior to the war. His wife was the former Elizabeth Louisa Knight. He died of yellow fever at Summerville, SC, during the war. He had been recommended for promotion to brigadier general and President Jefferson Davis had verbally promised him the promotion shortly before he died on October 10, 1864.