WAR-DATE LETTER TO SECRETARY OF WAR ASKING FOR RELEASE OF CONFEDERATE NAVAL OFFICER.
Autograph Letter Signed (“U.S. Grant / Lt. Gen.”), 1 p, 4to, City Point, VA, February 15, 1865, to Edwin Stanton, on letterhead of Armies of the United States, with notation indicating letter should be sent in cipher, leaf creased, mildly thumbed, tipped at left margin to mount.

Grant writes this letter to Stanton, asking to have “Commodore Buchanan sent here for exchange. We will be able to release some of our sailors from Southern prisons with him.” Commodore Franklin Buchanan [1800-1874] was a Confederate Naval officer who served as Captain of the C.S.S. Virginia (also known as the Merrimac), though not at the time of the battle with the Monitor. Later he commanded the Confederate Naval forces at Mobile Bay, and participated in the battle against Admiral Farragut’s forces in August of 1864, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. He remained in Federal custody until this letter of Grant’s arranged for his exchange.
See illustration.