OLD 1870 LEXINGTON VA CHECK SIGNED BY 2 CONFEDERATE OFFICERS

Description

OLD 1870 LEXINGTON VA CHECK SIGNED BY 2 CSA OFFICERS
An attractive old check, dated 4 January 1870 from the BANK OF LEXINGTON (about 2.75 x 7.5”) with attractive gold/light-orange 2-cent REVENUE STAMP (with eagle) printed in the center of the check. On the left side, the check has a fine illustration of a man sitting wearing a hat, smoking a pipe, and reading a paper in some "exotic" location. This engraving is by “A. Hoen & Company, Baltimore”.
The check is filled out & signed on the front by one famous Confederate Officer and made out to and endorsed on the reverse by another.
The check is filled out and signed on the front by Confederate Soldier J. P. MOORE.
[
It appears that Moore started to write "1869" on this early-January check, then wrote a "7" over the "6" and added a small "0". However, there is a lesser possibility that the check was dated 1876 rather than 1870.
]
Confederate Captain John Preston Moore was born in Rockbridge County VA. In 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate States Army at Staunton, VA as a 2nd Lieutenant in "G" Co. 58th Virginia Infantry Regiment. He was severely wounded in the right thigh in the battle of Port Republic in 1862, and promoted to Captain. He transferred into Veteran Reserve Corps and detailed in February 1863 to Bath County, VA as Enrolling Officer. In August 1864 he was detailed to command the post at Lexington, VA. After the war, Moore served as Deputy Sheriff, 1865-70, Clerk of the Court, Lexington, & as lawyer from 1893-1911. He died in 1911, and is buried in the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery. In October 1870 (just 9 months after he wrote out this check) Captain J. P. Moore was chosen to represent a soldier of the Confederate States of America as a PALLBEARER AT THE FUNERAL OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE.
Moore has made this check out to "Col. Wm McLaughlin" who was a Circuit Court Judge in Lexington, VA from 1870-1898. He was born in Rockbridge County, VA in 1828. He graduated from Washington College in 1851. During the Civil War, McLaughlin enlisted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the “1st” Company of the Virginia Rockbridge !st Light Artillery. His horse was shot under him in battle at Fisher’s Hill, VA. In 1862 he was promoted to Major and assigned to GENERAL ECHOL’S staff as Quartermaster and later as the CHIEF OF ARTILLERY. He was wounded in 1864 at the battle of Cold Harbor while commanding an Artillery Battalion. McLaughlin died in Lexington in 1898 and is buried in the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery.
William McLaughlin has signed his name as an endorsement on the reverse of the check that is filled out and signed on the front by CSA Captain J. Preston Moore.
TWO famous Lexington Confederate Soldiers are thus related together by this attractive old bank check.
Inconspicuous “cut-cancel” in center of check. Good condition as shown in scan below of the front and part of the reverse of the check & some enlarged detail.
521a1a