November 28, 2019 / Joanne Yeck

Buckingham County Post Offices, Part IV

Jefferson Davis Stamp, 1862.

This envelope addressed to William C. Agee at Gravel Hill in Buckingham County is of interest not for its postmark but for its stamps. Issued in 1862, the face on this five cent, Confederate States stamp is CSA President Jefferson Davis. According to Mystic Stamp Company:

When the Civil War erupted, the U.S. demonetized (made worthless) its postage stamps and issued new ones to prevent the South from using U.S. stockpiles. The Confederate Post Office was organized in February 1861 and took over postal operations on June 1, 1861. Some Confederate post offices used the old system of paying cash for postage, others used their own provisional issues.

The addressee, William C. Agee, born in 1822, was the son of Frances Crutchfield Snoody and Thomas Bransford Agee and was first cousin to my ancestor, Mary Elizabeth Agee, who married his brother, Thomas Meredith Agee, in 1857.