1886 Edgar Allan Letter Civil War Veteran Prominent Virginia Political Figure

Description

1886 Edgar Allan Letter Civil War Veteran Prominent Virginia Political Figure.
This is a folded letter with creases as shown.
Nice conversation letter from Edgar Allan to another major. Here is a brief bio of Allan:
Edgar Allan was one of Virginia’s leading Republicans from 1867 until 1902. A native of England who fought with George A. Custer’s cavalry during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Allan settled in Prince Edward County as a farmer in 1865. He then taught himself law and established a Farmville practice. The region’s African American voters elected him to the Constitutional Convention of 1867–1868. Though mocked as “Yankee” Allan, he spent twelve years as Prince Edward’s commonwealth’s attorney and three years in the Senate of Virginia. In 1883 he moved to Richmond, becoming a prosperous lawyer. In 1892 he helped Bettie Thomas Lewis, daughter of a former slave and a wealthy white man, claim her inheritance. Eight years later he lost a bid for Congress, and Republicans aligned with U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt took control of the state party from Allan’s group in 1902. Sickly, in pain, and emotionally devastated by the loss of political power, Allan committed suicide in 1904.