Letter from Thomas T. Land to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; June 7, 1861

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Letter from Thomas T. Land to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; June 7, 1861

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People

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889 Land, Alfred Dillingham, 1842-1917?Land, T.T. Jr.Land, Thomas T.Pettus, John Jones, 1813-1867 Walker, Leroy Pope, 1817-1884

Events

Wars and Military Conflicts--American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

Military Units

Confederate States of America. Army Confederate States of America. Army. Artillery Louisiana. Militia

Organizations

Confederate States of America--Congress

Places

Alabama--Montgomery County. Montgomery Louisiana Louisiana--Orleans Parish. New Orleans Mississippi--Hinds County. Jackson South Carolina Virginia

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[seal]

New Orleans June 7^th 1861

Hon: John J. Pettus

Governor of Mississippi

Dear Sir

Having failed to see you at Jackson on the 5^th instant in consequence of you absence, I wrote you a note explaining the object of my visit, and directed it to be put into the post office to await your return.—

The special object of my visit, was to solicit your influence with President Davis, on behalf of my son Alfred D. Land for the purpose of obtaining for him the appointment of Lieutenant in the Army of the Confederate States—But as his age being 19 years old in January last, may be an ob-jection to his appointment to a lieutenancy in the Army, I have concluded to write you again, and to request your further action, in the event of his minority being made an objection to the appointment desired.-

I have understood that an act was passed by our late Congress at

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Montgomery, (Altho I have not seen it) autho-rizing the President or Secretary of War, to appoint a certain number of Cadets for the Army, and that in making such appointments, minority is immaterial—. If such be the case, my son would be satisfied with Cadetship in the Army.—

If both the lieutenancy and the Cadetship should fail, there is a last resort, I should be pleased to have my son appointed Aid in the Staff of some one of our Generals with whom your wishes and recommendation would ^have^ much influence.—

I do not wish to trouble you with all these three several appli-cations, but I do most earnestly desire your active influence in his favor, for the one, which in your opinion, will be most likely successful.—For, I assure you, that so long as my son remains out of the Commission in the Army, and subject to the drudgery and associations of a Private or Common Soldier, it will be to me a constant source of mortification and unhappiness: and hence it is, that I have applied to you, who have with President Davis, more influence than any one man, in Mississippi or Louisana, to assist me your early friend, in procuring for my son a position in the

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Army, respectable in itself, even in a time of peace, and more so during a period of war.—

If an appointment should be secured, it will, of course be made as a personal favor to yourself, and will bring me ^under^ lasting obligations to the friend of my boyhood, whom I have not seen for more thirty years.—

I am very truly
your Obd Svt

Tho. T. Land

P.S. It is only permissible for one to speak of himself, to an intimate friend in which light I regard yourself.—My ancestor fell in the Revolutonary Struggle for our Independence on the soil of South Carolina.—I have been classed from the beginning among the fire eaters of the South—I have given my two oldest sons T. T. Land Jr now in the Washington Artillery in Virginia, and A. D. Land of the Crescent Rifles, Company B, to my country in the darkest hour of her troubles, and am ready to devote myself to the same holy cause, where necessity demands it, even as a private soldier, and therefore trust, that my motive for earnestly desiring the promotion of Alfred a promising youth, will be correctly appreciated.—

T. T. L.

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June 7^th 1861
T T Land

[?]
Judge of La

T T Land
June 7^th 1861