Interesting Find On 1860's Cover- Exciting Discovery!

Thought I'd share this interesting find from yesterday--

I've never been a postage historian, so I'm very new to the world of collecting covers, but I'm doing so right now with the 3c 1861 stamp to try to find some of the color variations by date. To do that, you need to be able to know not only the month, but also the year.

As many of you will already know, the month and date is fairly easy on many covers, but the year can be a problem-- sometimes there is a year on the Circular Date Stamp, sometimes it is found in the correspondence that may be in the cover, sometimes it is docketed on the outside of the envelope, especially if it contained legal documents.

The one below, came in a lot of several others with dates, and was pretty useless to me:



That is, until I was holding it up to a light and found something inside I hadn't seen before-- and probably hadn't looked, because I was too busy looking for year dates. A newspaper article describing a "Privateer" and Confederate ship named the "Florida" that the writer of the article had come across in Havana, Cuba.



I've edited the article, and uploaded as a photobucket image so it could be more readable, and the article refers to a Capt. Maffit, the privateer, who was the captain of the Florida.

Last night for kicks, I googled Captain Maffit and "Florida" and found a lot of information about John Newland Maffit. Wiki (I know it isn't always dependable information) shows "On August 17, 1862, he became the first commanding officer of the cruiser CSS Florida, taking her through a difficult outfitting period during which most of the ship's company was stricken with yellow fever. While in port in Cuba, Commander Maffitt himself contracted the disease."

The article above states how is in Havana to outfit the ship, so the year of the cover must be 1862 (or at least it is reasonable to suggest that it is, IMO).

Another interesting article I found was at this location:
http://www.cfhi.net/CaptainMaffittsDaughter.php

And since it shows that it was written by a descendant, I'll email him to at least point him to this post, and if he wants the article, I'll be happy to share with him.

I thought I'd share, because I thought it was pretty cool that I was able to figure this out, and it was really kind of a first for me in researching a cover.

Enjoy, Ray

Wow, nicely researched item! Attractive cover, too.

Thanks smauggie-- didn't I send you something in the mail, and did you receive it yet?

Ray

I really enjoyed reading your post, great job on getting some background from the clipping. It surely makes the cover more of a treasure when one can get some additional information, and the historical tie in to the Civil War is wonderful.

Please keep us updated on finding a descendant!

Bill

Turns out that the story gets even more interesting, and has a very cool and surprising ending---

I spoke on the phone on Tuesday with Bob Maffit, who is John Newland Maffit's great-great-grandson. Bob is an ambassador for the city of Wilmington, NC-- and spends a great deal of effort in promoting this fine city.

He told me that John Newland Maffit was the real-life inspiration for a character in a movie that I'm sure that everyone who is reading this has heard of, and has seen-- a privateer in the Civil War, who was loved by women, just like John Newland Maffit was--- and that would be none other than CAPTAIN RHETT BUTLER from GONE WITH THE WIND!!

I hope I have the details correct here--- Bob Maffit told me that Margaret Mitchell never publicly admitted that Rhett Butler was actually John Newland Maffit, but I guess that it was a fairly well-known fact. The new book, which I believe was started by Margaret Mitchell, not finished for years, and then finished with the approval of her estate and published in 2007- "Rhett Butler's People", is a story about John Newland Maffit's life.

It also turns out that John Newland Maffit was the most notorious privateer during the war and his ship (referenced in the article above), the "Florida", sank 23 Union ships during the Civil War. Maffit escaped to England after the war, and returned to the States later after it was safe.

I just thought I'd share this with SCF-- quite a story-- with a surprising and very cool outcome!

Thanks, Ray

That's way too cool, Ray. Yet another answer to the question "why do we do what we do."