Confederate officer during the War Between the States

British Army officer, famous Arctic explorer and naturalist

War Date Autograph Letter Signed referring to Fort Sumter!

(1838-1921) He was the son of Sir William Henry Feilden, the 2nd Baronet of Feniscowles, and was educated at Cheltenham College. After joining the Black Watch,at the age of nineteen, he fought in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny 1857-58, and at the Taku Forts in China in 1860. During the War Between the States he served as a captain on the staff of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard. He then returned to the British Army, where he made captain in the Royal Artillery in 1874. He served in the First Boer War in 1881 and again in Africa in 1890. He was decorated for his service in India, China and South Africa, and was awarded the C.B. in 1900. Feilden collected information on the geology, flora and fauna of newly explored areas, and served as naturalist on Sir George Nares' Northern Polar Expedition in 1875. Besides making large and valuable zoological observations and collections, he laid down the geology of 300 miles of the coast of Smith's Sound, and brought home 2,000 specimens, carefully localised, illustrating and confirming his surveys. On the same voyage he discovered the Miocene Flora of Grinnell's Land, his collection and observations on which form an important contribution to Heer's "Flora Fossilis Arctica." He made three subsequent voyages to Arctic Europe and Asia, visiting Novaya Zemlya, Barents Land, Kolguev Island, Spitsbergen, and Russian Lapland, for the purpose of collating the geology, zoology, and botany of Arctic Europe with those of America.

War Date Autograph Letter Signed: 5 1/4 x 8 1/4, in ink.

Hd. Qrs., May 27th/64

Dear Madam,

I send you with pleasure a copy of the General Order recording the gallantry of the men who replaced the flag staff upon Fort Sumter on the 29th Jan. 1864.

I shall be glad to furnish you with other documents of a similar character that you may require.

I hope you have good accounts from Genl. Jordan. I expect he must find it very dull at Pocataligo.

Believe me to remain,
Very truly yours,
H.W. Feilden

Very fine.

Footnote: Feilden is referring to the bombardment of Confederate held Fort Sumter by the Union forces under the command of General Quincy A. Gillmore.

The General Jordan he refers to was Thomas Jordan, Chief of Staff of General Beauregard.