Interesting and scarce ink note from Lt. Constantine Chase of the 3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, written to a Lt. Marcus Conant. The note contains the confidential countersign password “Port Hudson."  Uttering that name would allow Conant to get through the Union lines, and ultimately to a hospital. The note is dated May 1865, and was written at Fort Baker, one of the many forts in the Washington D.C. area manned by Union Heavy Artillery troops who were charged with protecting the capitol. 
 Sometimes the most commonplace documents used during the Civil War are the most difficult to find. Every day, countersign "password" slips were created and delivered to those who would need them in order to cross picket lines. But few of these slips of paper remain.
 Letter is in vert good condition, and retains its original wax seal. It was sealed in a interesting, and very particular, way. 
 [Civil War, Union, Confederate]