bold strike of black circular datestamp with manuscript date and matching “25” rate, on 1832 folded letter to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, letter from soldier James Gardner to his aunt lamenting personal hardships at the fort and describing “depredations on Indians that were under the protection of the American Flag” (events that led to the outbreak of the Black Hawk War the following month), extremely fine strike, cover restored, the earliest recorded example of this marking and the earliest circular datestamp known from Wisconsin