1861 CONFEDERATE LETTERS & DOCUMENT SIGNED BY 10 OFFICERS re:GEN. KENTON HARPER

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1861 CONFEDERATE LETTERS & DOCUMENT SIGNED BY 10 OFFICERS re:GEN. KENTON HARPER:
$472.51

Exceptionally rare and fascinating, original Collection of 1861 Hand Written Confederate Field Documents / Communications written and signed by various Confederate Officers and relating to the dispute that arose from the appointment of Colonel (General) Kenton Harper as Commanding Officer of the 5th Regiment, Virginia Infantry.

Included here are three manuscript Documents related to a challenge that Colonel Kenton Harper faced from a group of officers who felt that their original Commanding Officer - Major William Smith Hanger Baylor (1831-1862) -given credit for capturing the South\'s first Prisoner of War and KIA at the Second Battle of Bull Run / 2nd Manassas) should have been retained in the position of Commanding Officer of the Regiment.

When the Civil War began in 1861 Harper chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause. Still a major general in Virginia\'s state militia, he was given command of the 5th Virginia Infantry Regiment on April 10. Eight days later a force of 2,400 men led by Harper and Brig. Gen. William H. Harman seized the U.S. Army arsenal located at Harpers Ferry in modern-day West Virginia. Despite the fires set by the Union Army forces as they withdrew, Harper\'s militia were able to salvage 4,000 of the approximately 15,000 muskets in storage there, as well as 300 of the arsenal\'s milling machines and metal working lathes, plus about 57,000 tools and wooden stocks, all items used in rifle production. Throughout the month this material was sent to Richmond, Virginia. On April 28 Confederate Col. Thomas J. \"Stonewall\" Jackson arrived to assume command of the forces at Harpers Ferry and began to organize the militia into regiments.

On May 1, 1861, Harper was appointed a brigadier general in the Virginia Provisional Army, an organization soon to be added to the overall Confederate States Army. Seven days later he was commissioned a colonel and given command of the 5th Virginia Infantry, one of the regiments that made up the Stonewall Brigade. Harper and the 5th Virginia fought well during the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, \"where his soldierly ability attracted the notice of the army commander.\"

The Document and letters offered here relate to a petition signed by 10 Confederate Officers of the 5th Virginia Infantry that called for the retention of their Commanding Officer - Major William Smith Hanger Baylor - to be retained in his position rather than the appointment of Colonel Kenton Harper by General Stonewall Jackson to command the regiment.

While the original Document / Petition signed by Officers of the 5th Virginia Infantry that originated this challenge to the authority of Colonel Harper is not included here, the three manuscript pieces all refer to this challenge that Colonel Harper refers to as \"mutinous\".

All three of the Letters / Documents are dated May 24th, 1861. The first is an Autograph Letter Signed from Confederate General Kenton Harper (at this time serving as Commanding Colonel of the 5th Regiment Virginia Infantry). This Letter measures 5\" by 8\" and is written to Major William Smith Hanger Baylor. It is a rather vitriolic response to the petition challenging his appointment as Commanding Officer of the 5th Virginia. The Letter reads:

“Bolivar, May 24, 1861

Maj. Baylor,
As I have just seen a copy of the proceedings of certain officers of the Third Regiment, intended to advance your interests which I regard as mutinous and disorganizing, and unless suspended, I shall take at once such measures as my duty and the interests of the service demands.

Yrs
Kenton Harper
Col. Thd. Infantry\"

The Second is an Autograph Letter Signed from Major William Smith Hanger Baylor to Colonel Kenton Harper in answer to the above Letter. This Letter measures approx. 7 3/4\" by 9 1/2\" and reads as follows:

“Bolivar, May 24, 1861

Col. Kenton Harper,
Sir,
I am sorry you construe the resolutions as mutinous and tending to insubordination. I did not so construe them, and I am satisfied that such was not the intention of those who passed them - with the exception of a copy, which I sent to Col. George Baylor, Staunton, I have not, nor will be responsible for their circulation. I have brought the matter to the attention of the officers who signed them and will leave to them what shall be done. I deem it due to myself to say that the fact of my sending you the resolutions should argue that I did not consider them as containing anything derogatory to you.

Respectfully yours
Wm. S.H. Baylor\"

The Third manuscript Document is a resolution signed by 10 officers of the 5th Regiment Virginia Infantry stating that the original Challenge was not meant in any way to be derogatory to Colonel Harper and that Major Baylor \"is in no manner or in any way responsible for the” original petition. This third Manuscript Document measures approx. 7 3/4” by 12 5/8” and reads:

“[May 24, 1861]

At a meeting of a portion of the officers of the Late 5th Regiment Virginia Volunteers

Resolved

That the resolutions passed by our command and signed by ourselves as officers of the several Companies as therein stated do hereby declare that in the said resolutions we did not and had no intention to effect in any particular upon either Col. Harper or Lieut. Col Harman.

Resolved

That Cmd. Wm S.H. Baylor is in no manner or in any way responsible for the same and that he has used no influence or exertion to our knowledge to have the same acted upon by the men composing our several commands.

(signed)James W. Newton Chairman (Lost leg at Fisher\'s Hill)
(signed)St. Francis C. Roberts Secy (Wounded 2nd Manassas)
(signed)H.J. Williams Capt. of S.G. (So. Guard, Wounded at Winchester)
(signed)Lieut. Moses A. McComb
(signed)Lieut. Henry Ross
(signed)Lieut. William G. Gilkeson
(signed)J.H. Waters Capt. W.A.G. (West Augusta Guard)
(signed)Wm. H. Randolph Lieut. S.G. (So. Guard, KIA at Gaines Mill)
(signed)O. H. Ramsay 2nd Lieut. W.V.I. (West View Infantry)
:(signed)Charles H. Calhoun 2nd Lieut. (KIA at Chancellorsville)”.

While we have been unable to uncover any specific information about the three Documents offered here, we have found references to the fact that the appointment of Kenton Harper as Commanding Officer of the 5th Virginia Infantry was controversial with many of the officers in the regiment feeling that their original commanding officer - Major William Smith Hanger Baylor - should retain his command. In the end Kenton Harper was charged with commanding the Regiment and Major Baylor served under Colonel Harper with great valor and bravery and eventually being Killed in Action at the Second Battle of Bull Run / 2nd Manassas.

William Smith Hanger Baylor was born in Augusta County, deep in the Valley of Virginia, on April 7, 1831, the only son of Jacob and Eveline Hanger. When a local militia company was organized in the late 1850’s, Baylor also was elected captain of the West Augusta Guards, and quickly elevated it to one of the finest militia companies in the state. This unit was one of the first called out to repel John Brown’s raid in October, 1859. But Baylor was not there to lead it. He had gone to New York on his honeymoon, where he was stricken with typhoid fever. When several volunteer companies from Augusta County were organized at the outset of the War in the spring of 1861, Baylor was chosen their colonel. In April the units were ordered to Harpers Ferry and mustered into Confederate service as the 5th Infantry Regiment, Virginia Volunteers; in the reorganization Baylor was appointed major and Kenton Harper their Commanding Officer. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson wrote at least one letter to Richmond in which he upheld Baylor as his most dependable and deserving subordinate during the critical weeks of organization at Harpers Ferry.

Baylor served with distinction in a skirmish at Falling Waters and again, three weeks later, in a sprawling battle on the plains of Manassas. With the reorganization of the Stonewall Brigade in mid-April, 1862, Baylor was named to the command of his old Fifth Regiment after the resignation of Kenton Harper. From that moment on, in a unit distinguished for its valor, he set an example. The young colonel from Staunton fought with distinction in Jackson\'s Valley Campaign, once having his horse shot from under him while leading a charge at Winchester, so he led the final assault on foot. During the Seven Days he was cited several times for conspicuous bravery. After the battle of Cedar Run in August 1862, Baylor was given command of the Stonewall Brigade. But because his undaunted courage and complete disregard of personal safety made him an easy target in battle, Baylor’s first campaign at the head of the Stonewall Brigade was his last. Barely ten days after assuming command – even before his promotion to brigadier could be confirmed – he was killed in the closing moments of Second Manassas, carrying the Flag of the 33rd Virginia. Baylor\'s body was tenderly borne from the battlefield and returned to Augusta County where he was buried in the Hebron Presbyterian churchyard.

These very rare and original Confederate Civil War Manuscript Letters / Documents are all in excellent condition. All are clean and crisp and exceptionally well preserved with light edge wear only. It is quite obvious the Confederate General Kenton Harper felt that these Documents, chronicling a challenge to him at the very start of the Civil War, were somehow important enough to him that he kept and preserved them in outstanding condition.

These Letters / Documents came to us with a small collection of Civil War Manuscript Documents from and relating to Confederate General Kenton Harper and all of the manuscript and the signatures are unconditionally guaranteed to be original and written in the hand of Kenton Harper, William Smith Hanger Baylor and the officers of the 5th Regiment Virginia Infantry.

A VERY rare and original, Collection of 1861 Hand Written Confederate Field Documents / Communications written and signed by various Confederate Officers and relating to the dispute that arose from the appointment of Colonel (ne: Major General) Kenton Harper as Commanding Officer of the 5th Regiment, Virginia Infantryand a fantastic addition to any collection!!!

Kenton Harper (1801 – December 25, 1867) was an American printer, soldier, town mayor, banker, newspaper editor, and legislator. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army during the Mexican–American War and later as a Confederate general officer during the American Civil War. He also reportedly played a role in the nicknaming of Stonewall Jackson.

During the Mexican War, Harper was a captain in the 1st Virginia Infantry, commanding the volunteer company from Augusta County that served in the northern frontier of Mexico. However he never saw combat and returned home to muster out in August 1848. Harper then was appointed acting inspector general of his brigade, and later was the military governor of Parras in the Mexican state of Coahuila. From 1851 to 1852, he was the United States agent to the Chickasaws at Fort Washita in the Indian Territory. After the war, Harper served as the assistant U.S. Secretary of the Interior in Washington, D.C. He also was appointed a major general in Virginia\'s state militia.

Harper returned home to the Shenandoah Valley and was again elected into Virginia\'s legislature to represent this area until 1864. On June 2 of that year Harper was re-appointed a colonel in the Confederate Army and given permission to form a regiment out of the reservist companies located in the Shenandoah Valley. He led them during the Valley Campaigns of 1864, taking part in the Battle of Piedmont on June 5–6, and then the Battle of Waynesboro, Virginia on March 2, 1865. Harper\'s command was routed during both of these Confederate defeats.

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