Lot Details

Ask about this item

Lot 161

captured Union patriotic design in black depicting George Proctor Kane, "Jackson Miss. Sep 23 1862" datestamp and arced "Due 10" (Type F), on cover addressed to Saltillo, Mississippi "Care of Capt. Hoskins, Co. A, 38th Regt Miss Vol", small faults including repaired edges and corners, affixed to black construction paper, very fine appearance, an unusual captured patriotic usage

As the Marshal of the Baltimore City Police Department, George Proctor Kane played a pivotal role in the Baltimore Riot of 1861. His strong and outspoken Confederate sympathies led to his arrest and imprisonment at numerous facilities including Fort McHenry and New York's Fort Lafayette. Upon his release in 1862 he moved to Montreal, before running the blockade and arriving in Richmond in 1864. It has been suggested that he was an acquaintance of John Wilkes Booth, and it was feared in 1861 that Kane might have involvement in an assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln upon his inauguration. Despite his checkered past, in the 1870s he served as both Sheriff and Mayor of Baltimore.