An Original Christmas Week Letter from Abraham Lincoln During the Civil War Is Up for Sale for the First Time
This is what President Lincoln was doing the week of Christmas: helping family return home to their war-torn plantation
The newly discovered historical document is valued at $60,000
PHILADELPHIA, PA – December 12, 2018 – The Raab Collection, the nation’s leading dealer in important historical documents, announced today that it is unveiling and offering for sale an original historical document signed by Abraham Lincoln the week of Christmas, allowing a family member to return home to their war-torn plantation in Arkansas. The newly discovered document, which has been in the possession of the direct descendants of the family of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln until now, is valued at $60,000.
“This puts is in the White House with President Lincoln the week of Christmas and shows he was helping family return home during the brutal war. It is also increasingly uncommon to find such an important document still in the hands of the families who originally received it,” said Nathan Raab, President of the Raab Collection.
The letter, dated the Monday of Christmas week, 1863, during the war: “Mr. and Mrs. Craig, of Arkansas, whose plantation, situated upon the Mississippi River a few miles below Helena, has been desolated during the present war, propose returning to reoccupy and cultivate said plantation; and it is my wish that they be permitted to do so, and that the United States military forces in that vicinity will not molest them or allow them to be molested, as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States.” Mrs. Craig was Mary Todd Lincoln’s first cousin.
About The Raab Collection: The Raab Collection has handled many of the most important historical documents to reach the market and worked with the families of famous Americans in the sale and preservation of their family treasures, among them Neil Armstrong, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, William Henry Harrison, and Ronald Reagan. Nathan Raab, a member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is also a contributor to Forbes.com.
