Dated “Chief Engineer Office at/ Dalton, GA Dec. 4 1863”. Addressed to “Col. G.W. Brent, A.A.GENL.” 2 pp. (1 sheet, front & back), in ink, on lined paper, 8 x 5”. Exhibits light yellowing and fold-marks, as well as mount staining and chipping along top margin. Else VG, and entirely legible. In protective sleeve.

Text: “Colonel…. Will you please issue an order for Capt. R.P. Rowley Engr Corps to proceed to Griffin GA on a business for this Dept. / Very Respectfully / Your Obt. Servt/ D. Leadbetter / Chief Engr AT [Army Tennessee]”.

Reverse endorsements: “Chief Egnr Office AT”// Application for an order for Capt Rowley Engr to proceed to Griffin GA on special business// Approved by command of Lt. Gen. Hardee// Kinloch Falconer A.A.G.// Transportation furnished in kind from Dalton Ga to Griffin Ga and return to Dalton GA Dec. 4 1863// Jno. Bransford/ Maj. A.Q.M.”

Danville Leadbetter was a native of Maine and an 1836 West Point graduate who acquired southern sympathies while serving a number of pre-war engineering billets, which included fort construction in Mobile, AL Leadbetter resigned his army commission in 1857 to accept appointment as Chief Engineer of Alabama. Commissioned Brigadier General in the Confederate Army in 1862, he superintended the erection of Mobile defenses and laid out Bragg’s lines at Chattanooga. At the war’s end he fled the country, possibly to Mexico, but eventually to Grifton, Canada, where he died, Sept. 26, 1866, later re-interred at Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, AL. Leadbetter’s flight to Canada was obviously prompted by fear of a Maine native such as himself being tried as a traitor for having thrown his lot with the Confederacy.

Kinloch Falconer was a 22 year old newspaper editor who enlisted as a private in the 8^th Mississippi Infantry, and was later commissioned into field & staff of the CS Adjutant General’s Dept, eventually promoted to Major. At the war’s end he returned home to Holly Springs, MS, and is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery.

R.P. Rowley was an Arkansas engineer who worked for pre-war Arkansas Governor Conway before enlisting in the Confederate army and receiving a Lieutenant’s commission in the Corp of Engineers. Serving various commands, Rowley was eventually promoted to Colonel and ended the war in the Trans-Mississippi, superintending Confederate engineering projects in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. After which he returned to Arkansas, and resided on a Mississippi plantation in Lonoke County, where he died in 1899.

Quarter-master Major John Bransford also had service with CS General field and staff.

A choice Army of Tennessee document, an ALS by its Brigadier General Chief engineer, Danville Leadbetter, with numerous junior officer endorsement signatures. Accompanied by brief amount of research material.

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