8,000 Killed in 8 Minutes - Civil War Collection Goes to Auction Block

YONKERS, N.Y., April 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Artifacts capture the Civil War - from the outbreak of fighting in 1861, through the surrender and Lincoln's assassination in 1865.

A major collection of more than 700 genuine Civil War documents and other historical items will be auctioned on May 17th by Cohasco, Inc. of Yonkers, NY.

Forty-four of the Civil War's 49 embattled months are represented by original items in the sale.

Included:

• Battlefield telegram sent at the zenith of the South's last great victory: Cold Harbor, Virginia, 1864. In eight deadly minutes, more men fell than in any other like period of the war (presale estimate $450/600)

• The handwritten premonition of the first Union officer to die -- in the War's first land battle, fought in Virginia. Major Theodore Winthrop's original poem not only portends the cloud of Civil War, but also predicts his own death ($1100/1400)

• Future President Andrew Johnson's workbook, prepared in the two frantic weeks preceding Fort Sumter, as he tried to avert war in April 1861 ($1900/2500)

• Rare signature, token, and card of Elmer Ellsworth, the first martyr of the Civil War (signature $550/750)

• On War's eve, an appraisal for 100-year-old slave ($150/200)

• Confederate Gen. Beauregard -- who had ordered the first shots of the War -- sends Gen. Hood an urgent letter, implying the end is near. Two days before Christmas 1864, Beauregard writes: "No reinforcements can possibly be sent from any quarter...No troops to spare...Every man required to oppose Sherman, who is not on a raid, but on an important campaign...." One day earlier, Pres. Lincoln was presented with Savannah as "a Christmas gift" by Union Gen. Sherman ($350/500)

• Scorched 1865 order -- possibly from the fire of burning Richmond -- appointing Robert E. Lee as General-in-Chief of the Confederacy ($1750/2150)

• Seven-page letter by the true author of the words woven into Pres. Obama's new White House rug. Attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr., the prose was actually written by abolitionist Theodore Parker: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." His words were adopted by King years later -- and miscredited on the new Oval Office furnishing. This 1852 letter of Parker's acclaims the rescue of Jerry, a slave fleeing "government kidnappers" ($1200/1800)

And many other items spanning twelve centuries, including:

• Rare manuscript fragment of the 9th century, with links to Charlemagne, from an imperial abbey in Germany ($9500/14,500)

• Document of black soldier, kidnapped from Africa as a boy, who bought his freedom fighting in the Revolutionary War ($900/1400)

• 1945 WWII soldier's newspaper echoing today's radiation peril: "Most Terrible Weapon Launched on Japan - Could Destroy Man" ($80/100)

All items fully described at http://cohascodpc.com.

Contact Name: Bob Snyder
Cohasco, Inc.
Established 65 Years
P.O. Drawer 821, Yonkers, New York 10702
Contact Phone: 1-914-476-8500
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://cohascodpc.com

This press release was issued through eReleases(R).  For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Cohasco, Inc.