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Wardate Pickens ALS

SOUTH CAROLINA - Francis Wilkinson PICKENS. Autograph letter signed to Wilmot G. De Saussure, Treasurer of South Carolina, addressing several matters of state finances.

[N.p.]: 14 June 1861. 3 pp. (246 x 198 mm). Condition: light creases. Prior to the war, Francis W. Pickens was a member of both houses of the South Carolina legislature, a U.S. Representative (1834-43), and the U.S. Minister to Russia (1858-60). In December, 1860, at the height of the secession movement, he was elected governor of South Carolina. In this capacity, Pickens directed the initial preparations for the capture of Fort Sumter (before Confederate authorities took over in February) and organized the state forces at the beginning of the war. This letter to the South Carolina treasurer includes details of the payments of various regiments from the state treasury and reimbursement for the same by the Confederate government. In part: "Col. Lipscomb, paymaster with Gen'l [Milledge L.] Bonham, writes me; he has $8,000 or near that amount left after paying off Gregg's Reg't. I wrote him to transmit it to you as Sec'ty of the Treasury for use in the same way, through the Bank of Richmond, as it was transmitted to him. I also directed him to enclose to you the pay roll in full or a voucher ... As he now has $196,000 to pay off the troops under Beauregard, I hope you can make some arrangement with him to allow you in Charleston the $48,000 as well as the amount on the pay roll to be sent you by Maj. Lipscomb . If they cannot pay us in cash, I agreed to take the Confederate eight point cotton bonds to the amount of what they owed us. I rec'd last evening a letter from Gen'l Gist which indicates that it is unnecessary for me to leave home now. I therefore shall remain..."