RICHMOND Va. JUN 15 1861 circular datestamp (Powell type 1a) with matching double strike of PAID 5 (type E) over green crayon “5” on small pink-lined lady’s cover to Gov. J. L. Manning, Manassas Junction, Va., during the brief period when Manning served as a colonel on the staff on Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. This postal marking had a short life, only from early June 1861 until July 6, 1861. Small piece of top back flap cut out, Ex Harry Muldrow. $110.

John Laurence Manning (1816-1889) was born to privilege and with political connections. His father was governor of South Carolina from 1824 to 1826. By 1860, his estate was valued at $2 million, including plantations in South Carolina and Louisiana and at least 648 slaves. He was serving in the S.C. Senate when he was unanimously elected governor in 1852. Manning attended the South Carolina Secession Convention, signed the Ordinance of Secession, and sat in the state Senate for the duration of the Civil War. Immediately after the war, he was elected to the U.S. Senate but, declining to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, he was not seated – and properly so.