Mail from Sherman's Army
The Stamp
Collector's Magazine (London),
March 1, 1865, carried a paragraph no doubt copied from a New York
newspaper,
which I reprint in view of the great interest today in philatelic
material
related to the Civil War. "The mail from Sherman's Army, by
the Arago
reached the New York post-office at half past six o'clock on Friday
night,
and the last of more than 200,000 letters was dispatched by the Erie
line
at quarter past four on the next afternoon. The stamps not
having
been cancelled, the labor was necessarily performed in the New York
post-office,
and employed fifteen men throughout the night and up to noon
Saturday.
Twenty men were were required to sort the letters. This is
the largest
mail that the New York post-office ever received." Covers
from this
mail are probably still in existence and I presume could be identified
in some manner, the best way no doubt if the letters are still inside
the
envelopes.
-
George B. Sloane
Sloane's Column Stamps May 22, 1954 Posted September 8, 1999
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