BRISTOE STATION VA. SEP  6 (1861) cds with ms. Paid 5 on cover addressed to Mrs. W.D. Pender, Salem N.C. by her husband, William Dorsey Pender, then a colonel but soon to be a general officer. His wartime signatures, even an indirect one such as this, are quite scarce since he was only 29 years old when he was killed in action at Gettysburg. $500.   

William Dorsey Pender (1834-1863), at twenty-nine, was the youngest and the fastest-rising Major General in the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. He had just been placed at the head of "Powell" Hill's old Light Division, one of the two best divisions in the army. Along with Maj. Gen. John B. Hood, who commanded the only division which could match the Light Division, Pender was the man for whom Lee and others predicted a great future. Privately, Lee was quoted as saying that Pender was the most promising of the younger officers of the Army and in line to replace Stonewall Jackson. Unfortunately, his first battle as Major General was his last and he was killed in action. Was the subject of one of my columns in the American Stamp Dealer & Collector.