1864 Civil War Cover Stampless.

I was reading a stamp book and read about union occupied civil war covers(I found a picture on the internet from 1864 New Orleans similar to the picture in my book),what is this,no stamps,no other markings such as Prisoner or Flag of Truce mail.It's not a blockade-run cover,N.O was occupied in 1864,did these get through covertly ?

Are these worth anything with just the postmark and the steamship stamp ?

10 cents was a lot of postage back then for an envelope

Ya it was,I found the picture on Wikipedia(REGISTERED TRADEMARK,LOL),don't know anything about them and thought I'd ask here.

I came across 4 with out and 4 with the Washington 3 cent out searching one day after work with the letters still inside .They were from a soldier to his wife and the wife to the Soldier. I framed them in glass front and back many people like to take them down and read them.I dont know what happened to him .Maybe some day I will look his name up.

Hi,I found letters like yours but they all have the army censors writing on them,like this one,it has "examined" on it.

I can't find one with just the steamship stamp and the postmark,I think there smuggled letters that by-passed the censors and went right from the ship to the post-office,did yours have writing on them ?

It is an incoming steamship letter - letters carried by steamship under contract with the Post Office and carried on ocean routes that the Post Office considered to be post roads. At the time of letter the rate was 10¢ regardless of distance. The letter originated in an unknown foreign country.



By January 1865 the Union controlled the entire Mississippi River and reestablished mail routes. There was nothing covert - the steamship sailed into New Orleans and deposited the mail at the Post Office.

It all depends on your point of view as to whether New Orleans was occupied or rejoined with the Union. Given the exceptionally harsh treatment of all civilians including the women, General Benjamin "the Beast" Butler is a good reason for anyone of either side to consider it an occupation. Anyway, it happened on April 25, 1862 and from then on mail was no longer Confederate and in the early days it went by steamer out to the Gulf, around Florida, and up to the north. I have done a bit of study about the Union occupation because my ancestor was a private in a Connecticut infantry regiment that was under the orders of General Butler during 1863 until they moved north to begin the assault on Por Hudson as a part of the overall siege of Vicksburg. That was the first battle in which African American regiments fought along side with white regiments on the Union side. The African American regiments were the 1st and 3rd Missippi which were created from Confederate regiments of African American soldiers who were offered the chance to change sides after their side had lost the battle for New Orleans.