Partly printed parole document completed in manuscript, signed by Colonel Thomas S. Galloway, Jr. Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 10 April 1865.

Historic paroled prisoner's pass, printed and issued on 10 April 1865, just a day after Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant. It is completed in manuscript for 1st Lieutenant Samuel P. Tate by his commanding officer, Colonel Thomas S. Galloway, Jr. [alt. Gallaway].

Historian Roger Futrell remarks that these parole passes "symbolized President Lincoln's desire to unify the Nation," allowing Southern soldiers to lay down their arms and return home. In the last meeting between Lee and Grant, held on horseback, General Lee requested that each soldier be provided an individual "paroled Priosner's pass" so that they could return wihout fear of being branded a deserter. Each soldier was issued a pass once they swore the Oath of Allegieance to the the United States. Official war records list 28,231 Confederate soldiers who were paroled at Appomattox Court House between 9 and 15 April 1865.

Printed on short notice. Field presses were set up inside the Clover Hill Tavern and printers worked long hours to produce nearly 30,000 passes. They were printed on whatever paper was available. This example, like many, is printed on lined paper.

These passes are highly desirable.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Relics, Letters, Documents, Manuscripts, Ephemera]