Signed Note / Address Leaf by John B. Floyd as U.S. Secretary of War under Pres. Buchanan prior to his resignation (December 29, 1860) and appointment as a C.S.A. Major General (upon the succession of Virginia on April 17, 1861). Written to W. (William) A. Moriarty, Esq in Boston, Mass. on stationary with an embossed crest containing the initials "W M," presumably William Moriarty's. Approx. 6.25" H x 4"W.Although Floyd had openly opposed secession before the election of Abraham Lincoln, his conduct after the election fell under suspicion. In the press, he was accused of treason for sending large stores of government arms to federal arsenals in the Southern United States in anticipation of the Civil War, and, according to Ulysses Grant, in his Personal Memoirs, "Floyd, the Secretary of War, scattered the army so that much of it could be captured when hostilities should commence, and distributed the cannon and small arms from Northern arsenals throughout the South so as to be on hand when treason wanted them.After the secession of Virginia, Floyd was commissioned a major general in the Provisional Army of Virginia, but on May 23, 1861, he was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army (CSA).