RICHMOND Va. (JUN) 30 1861 on cover to Hon. J.L. Manning, Aid to Genl. Beauregard Manassas Station, Virginia. with docketing up left end H.M. Spofford June 1861. There are pencil diagrams on both sides of the cover that are considered by some to be artillery placement for the forthcoming battle. See back of cover here. Ex Ian Tickell from his Tudor Hall (Manassas) exhibit, also ex John Vagnetti. $200.

John Laurence Manning (1816-1889) was the 35th governor of South Carolina (1852-1854) with a solid political career. He was a planter and colonel in the CS Army, serving as aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard at both Fort Sumter and the First Battle of Manassas. He was one of the signers of the Ordinance of Secession and was appointed a commissioner to persuade Louisiana to secede from the Union. 

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (1818–1893) was a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and served with distinction as an engineer officer in the Mexican-American war. After Louisiana seceded, he resigned from the US Army and became the first brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. After the war, Beauregard returned to Louisiana, where he advocated black civil rights, including suffrage, served as a railroad executive, and became wealthy as a promoter of the Louisiana Lottery.