POWHATAN CH VA. APR  12 (1862) CDS, complete but virtually unreadable, as always, with manuscript “Paid 5.” Used on 3-page FOLDED LETTER with EXCELLENT WARTIME CONTENT - datelined Montpelier, April 10, 1862, and signed Wm. Pope Dabney to Mrs. Phebe H. Bailey, Scottsburg PO, Halifax Co., Va. Postal Officials in Richmond are known to have complained to the Powhatan C.H. Postmaster about the unreadable nature of his marking device. The articulate, easily read letter refers to "Beauregard's great victory" and notes, "I have no fears for the South side & am more confident than ever about the final outcome." On then-current local troop movements, he writes, "…the county of Orange is filled with the Army of the Potomac which has fallen back from Manassas. The county of Culpeper will soon be overrun with the Enemy and Genl. Johnson will doubtless make a stand and risk battle on the banks of the Rapidan…" A MARVELOUS LETTER. (Click to see letter page 1) (page 2) (page 3). Ex John Vagnetti. $400. 

William Pope Dabney (1829-1894) was a judge, a politician, a writer, and a farmer. Per Find A Grave, Dabney was born at Montpelier in Powhatan County. He married Lelia Bankhead Madison, a great-niece of President James Madison. They had eight children. He was educated at Hampden Sydney College and studied law at the University of Virginia. He was a farmer, state politician, and judge of the county courts of Powhatan and Cumberland counties. Dabney served in the Virginia Legislature before the Civil War. After the start of the War, he joined the 4th Congressional District Virginia Mounted Guard. Jane Turner Censer notes in The Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood, 1865–1895, that after the Civil War, despite Dabney's career as a lawyer and a judge, the family struggled financially. He was elected Judge of Powhatan and Cumberland counties in 1872. He was a man of marked literary ability and the author of many valuable historic papers.