Myers, Lieutenant Colonel Abraham C. Letter Signed, written to Captain William F. Haines.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

7th May

Richmond, VA

1862

Written on the official letterhead of the Quartermaster General’s Office of the Confederate States of America, concerns the compensation for a horse killed in battle belonging to a Lieutenant. Myers states that evidence must be supplied by a “disinterested person” to establish that the horse was killed in battle, accompanied by an appraisal of the horse’s value, in order for compensation to be paid.

The highest ranking Jew in Confederate Army, Abraham Charles Myers (1811-89), was a native of Charleston and a career officer in the United States Army from 1833 following his graduation from West Point. Between 1848 and 1861 he worked in the Quartermaster Department, he also served in Mexican War. After the Civil War broke out, he was appointed Quartermaster General of the Confederate Army, charged with equipping the army with the supplies it needed out of the limited resources of the South. As a result of his position he held the rank of full colonel. Myers came from a distinguished Charleston Jewish family. His paternal grandmother, Esther Myers (1748-1828), was the daughter of Moses Cohen (1709-62), the London-born de facto rabbi of Charleston’s synagogue Beth Elo-him and one of that congregation’s founders in 1749. Of note, Fort Myers, Florida is named for Col. Abraham C. Myers.