"Virginia by right belonged to us..."

Autograph letter signed by John W. Bell. Navy Department, [Washington, D.C.], 10 April 1865. 4 pages, 4to. With forward envelope, printed "Bureau of Navigation, Official Business" postmarked October 28th, with red 3-cent stamp.

WITH Enclosed vignetted CDV bust portrait of the letter writer, John M. Bell. N.p., n.d. Modern pencil inscription to verso reads; "John M. Bell / Bureau of Navigation / Navy Dept, Washington."

A jubilant letter written in the immediate aftermath of Lee's surrender at Appomattox, which includes an eyewitness account of one of Lincoln's last public appearances before his assassination just days later.

The letter opens joyously: "What better news can we have to congratulate ourselves than the glorious news of the last seven days? True you have heard of the Fall of Richmond and ere this reaches you the Surrender of the Gen'l Lee with the Army of Northern Virginia. What great rejoicing should be, and are, ours today, and what a volume of Thanks will go up to Almighty God, for the great blessing he has bestowed upon us, and safely guided through a long and desolating war, the glorious old Union to a haven where Peace dawns upon our banners. When the news of Richmond having fallen was rec'd the city and all the people seemed to run wild. The news of Lee's Surrender has caused the multitude to almost run made with excitement and I see on every hand must every other man strength inebriated and celebrating the greatest event of the age."

He continues with an account of the President's return to Washington: "Pres Lincoln returned from Richmond today and the vast gathering called him out when he spoke about five minutes and said amongst other things that 'Dixie was the best tune he ever heard and that the Attorney Genr'l had given it as his opinion that Virginia by right belonged to us, and that we had taken possession +c. +c. He proposed three [cheers] for Grant and the Army. Three more for the Navy and said if he spoke longer just now the people would 'dribble out of' him what ought to remain unsaid until the glorious festivities came off which are now in progress to celebrate this great event and in which he contemplated taking a part."

Condition: bright and crisp. Envelope with some soiling, from a later date but marked "forward".

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Letters, Manuscripts, Documents, Signatures, Ephemera, Navy, Naval History, Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth]