Longstreet, James. Extraordinary autograph letter signed, 30 August 1865....

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Longstreet, James. Extraordinary autograph letter signed, 30 August 1865. Extraordinary autograph letter signed ("J Longstreet"), 2 pages (8 x 10 in.; 203 x 254 mm.), in pencil, Macon, Mississippi, 30 August 1865, to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant appealing to him to recommend a pardon for a former Confederate officer. Tears expertly repaired and marginal losses infilled; light toning. Only weeks after cessation of the final hostilities of the Civil War, James Longstreet writes to his old friend Ulysses Grant, advocating a pardon for a fellow former Confederate officer, invoking the "Amnesty Proclamation of President Lincoln of 1863." Longstreet writes in full: I take the liberty to address you in behalf of Maj. T.K Jackson of the late Confederate Army. He, like most of the Army Officers from the Southern States, resigned at the beginning of the war and returned to his state. This step was taken under the conviction that his services and allegiance were due to his state. I think that I can safely assure you that he was always a national, rather than a sectional, man, and had he been in a position to do so would have made any sacrifice for the safety and honor of the country. If he has been misguided he has committed error that was common to one half of the world, and those who were called upon to determine it, have already grievously answered it. Before I left the old Army, I asked some officers from the northern states, who advised me not to resign, whether they would resign if their states had done as mine had done. They invariably admitted that they would return to their states. Yet all of these officers have served in your army during the war and some with considerable distinction. And are accepted as the truest and bravest in your great army. Let me appeal to you then to determine whether there is justice or honor in pursuing a fellow for whose only crime is error of judgment, and who now sues for pardon. Besides, it is my humble opinion that the terms granted by you at the surrender of Genl. Lee, extended, to all of us, the benefits of the Amnesty Proclamation of President Lincoln of 1863. Those terms were approved by President Lincoln and are therefore irrevocable. J Longsteet Longstreet was writing with his left hand as his right arm had been temporarily paralyzed following a wound he received at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. Although he rejoined Lee's Army of Northern Virginia within several months (learning to ride a horse with his left hand), he did not regain the use of his right hand for several years after the war's conclusion. Jackson obliged Longstreet's request and had a copy made that he returned for a signature. When Longstreet's final letter reached Grant in October 1865, the general endorsed the recommendation to the Attorney General, requesting that a "pardon be speedily granted..." to Jackson. After which Grant went a step further and endorsed an argument Longstreet presented in his final letter advocating clemency for officers who had resigned their commissions at the opening of the war: "I think it is now time when some pardons should be extended to officers who left the old Army. As a rule they are a class who will keep any obligation...." Unfortunately for Jackson, the pardon was delayed for several months as his case languished amidst the crush of other amnesty claims. Finally, on 14 February 1867, Attorney General Henry Stanbery recommended that Jackson be pardoned. President Johnson granted the pardon the following day. James Longstreet and Ulysses Grant were fellow West Point classmates, both graduating in 1843. Following school, the two remained close, serving together for sometime at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. A few years on, Longstreet attended Grant's 1848 wedding in St. Louis. During the Civil War, Grant and Longstreet faced each other at the Wilderness in 1864 where the latter received the wound to his right arm. Following the war, Longstreet remained close to Grant endorsing him for president in 1868 (and attending his inauguration) and earning the distinction of the only former senior Confederate officer to join the Republican Party. At the outbreak of the war, Thomas Klugh Jackson obtained commission from the State of South Carolina and resigned his U.S. commission on 1 April 1861. During the Civil War he served as Albert Sidney Johnston's chief commissary before being captured at Fort Donelson. Following his exchange, Jackson continued service as a commissary first in Gainesville, Alabama and later in Grenada Mississippi. Following the war he settled in Gainesville as a merchant and a farmer.