Pre-printed bond stamp meas. approx. 7.75 x 6.75 inches. Across the top of the bond is “STAMP FOR SPECIAL TAX UNITED STATES INTERNAL REVENUE.” At top center is a woodcut of COMMERCE seated amongst numerous tobacco products. The stamp is pre-printed with text but has not been filled in. Text is over printed the date “1876.” Bottom is signed in excellent ink “L. Mc Laws.” When he signed the document McLaws also wrote in the district number and the state “Ga.”

The document is in good, clean, unused condition but has two rows of three cancelation holes.

Lafayette McLaws was born January 15, 1821 in Augusta, Georgia. He graduated 48^th of 56 in the West Point class of 1842. He served as an infantry officer in the Mexican War and in the Mormon troubles in Utah.

At the outbreak of the Civil War McLaws was a Captain but he resigned his commission to accept a position as Major in the Confederate Army. He quickly rose to the rank of Colonel of the 10^th Georgia. By May 23^rd 1862 McLaws was a Major General and was assigned to command the 1^st Division of Longstreet’s Corps.

He served in the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam and Fredericksburg, where Robert E. Lee praised his defense of Marye's Heights, and at Gettysburg, where his division made successful assaults through the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield, but was unable to dislodge Union forces from Cemetery Ridge. After the Knoxville Campaign, he was court-martialed for inefficiency, though this was overturned for procedural reasons. Finally he was sent to his native Georgia to resist Sherman's March to the Sea, but had to retreat through the Carolinas, losing many men through desertion, and is presumed to have surrendered with Joseph E. Johnston in April 1865.

McLaws remained bitter about his court-martial, especially as the charges had been filed by James Longstreet, his friend and classmate at West Point, with whom he had served for years. Although he defended Longstreet against Lost Cause proponents who blamed him for losing the war, McLaws never fully forgave Longstreet for his actions. Following the war he was in insurance, a tax collector, and a postmaster. He died in Savannah, Georgia on July 24, 1897 and is buried there in Laurel Grove Cemetery.

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