Question About 1863 Cover

I am a regular contributor on the Canadian side of SCF. I recently however got this cover from an estate sale, and I have no idea about it.

Could someone please give me some guidance on the stamp #, and information like the cancel or any background.

It came in an glassine envelope that had these bits written on it : Antigua and Barbuda mail; S.S; 942; and #65. But I am not sure that this info relates to the cover.

It looks like it was mailed from Nicholasville KY on July 7, 1863 to Ohio.

Thanks

Can't speak to the Antigua & Barbuda, SS, or 942. But it looks like a Sc #65. So that's 25% of it, anyway.

Nice bullseye cancel.

The glassine was just recycled.

The stamp is Scott# 65. This is the commonest type of cover since 3c was the basic first-class rate of the time. The cancel is neatly struck which is a plus but the cover is stained and worn which is a minus. It is pretty average unless someone collects Kentucky cancels of the era.

The pencil note "Soldier's letter" was added by some seller in the past. Do you have the letter? That would be the most interesting part but would need to have details about battles or suchlike to have any value. That may in doubt since soldiers on active duty normally had free mail during the US Civil War.

Thanks for this. Regrettably, no letter. (I looked!)

There was an enormous 4000 acre Union Army supply depot/camp at Nicholasville during the war. If this was sent by a soldier then he would have been based there, but as far as I can see on this cover there is nothing at all to suggest it was sent by a soldier - the pencil notation is modern and without the letter it is meaningless. Sadly, you mention there is no letter inside which might have proved it was from a soldier who worked at the supply depot/camp but since there is not all that can be said about this cover is that it is an ordinary common civilian cover of that date and location and that both the cover and the common stamp are in poor condition. I agree that this would most likely be of interest to Kentucky town cancel collectors since the cancel is fairly nicely struck.

Not quite.
During the U.S. civil war, soldiers could have their letters certified as a "soldier's letter" by an officer or chaplain (or something close to this, I don't have exact wording in front of me), and the letter could then be mailed without prepayment of postage, which still had to be paid by the recipient at the normal rate. Otherwise, unpaid mail would have been charged double to the recipient. This alleviated much of the need for carrying gummed stamps into the field, but bottom line: the USPOD got its postage payment during the civil war. Quite different from later wars in which the soldier mail did go through for free.