Houston Telegraph. / Supplemtne [sic] / Houston, March 9th, 1863. / Gen. Hood's Reports. / (Concluded) [caption title in one column, followed by dense text, printed triple-column on both sides of a folio sheet].

Houston, TX: Houston Telegraph, March 9, 1863. Folio broadsheet newspaper supplement, 14 x 9 inches, printed on yellowed Confederate necessity paper, apparently made from corn husks. The text includes two communications from Brigadier General John Bell Hood, one detailing the Confederate victory at the Battle of Gaines' Mill (27 June 1862), and the other giving a lengthy report of his brigade's service in the first Battle of Rappahannock Station (22-25 August 1862), Second Bull Run (28-30 August 1862), and Antietam (17 September 1862). There are also extracts from the Northern press, a full printing of the song "John Brown's Body," and a February, 1863, report from Alexandria, Louisiana, recounting the capture of the Yankee gunboat "Queen of the West," and other events around the Red River fortifications and Vicksburg. Several tiny holes affecting a few letters, but a very good copy of a rare Houston, Texas, Confederate newspaper broadsheet. Folded. (59824). (#7640). Item #60391

According to the "Handbook of Texas": "The [Houston] Telegraph and Texas Register, later variously known as the weekly, tri-weekly, or daily Telegraph, was the earliest newspaper in Texas to achieve a degree of permanence. Begun on October 10, 1835, at San Felipe de Austin … the paper became the official organ of the government of the Republic of Texas organized a few months later." It went through several owners before Edward H. Cushing (1829-1879) became the sole proprietor in the late 1850s. "From 1861 to 1865 the Telegraph encountered the same difficulties as other Confederate papers. Cushing resorted to using wallpaper and wrapping paper. When the Federal forces closed the Mississippi River, Cushing organized a pony express to gather and forward the news, which was issued as rapidly as possible, either in regular or extra editions. So many extras were issued that on February 6, 1864, the 'Daily Telegraph' replaced the 'Tri-Weekly Telegraph.'"

Price: $2,250.00

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