Lot 971

RICHARD CHANNING PRICE

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RICHARD CHANNING PRICE

Estimate: $1,500 - $2,000

Starting Bid: $750

(0 Bids)

by Alexander Historical Auctions LLC
July 31, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
106 East Main Street, Suite 103
Elkton, MD, US 21921

RICHARD CHANNING PRICE
(1843-May 1, 1863) Confederate major, aide-de-camp and adjutant to J.E.B. Stuart, and Assistant Adjutant General of the Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. On the evening of May 1, 1863, the first day of the battle of Chancellorsville, Gen. Ambrose Wright's brigade was engaged at Catherine Furnace on the Confederate left flank, and requested support from Stuart's horse artillery battalion. Stuart himself accompanied this force, riding at the head of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry brigade, with Price at his side. During the engagement against the superior Union artillery force, Price was mortally wounded by a shell fragment and bled to death. A DISPATCH FROM R. CHANNING PRICE TO GEN. FITZHUGH LEE – WRITTEN HOURS BEFORE HIS DEATH An absolutely singular A.L.S., 1p. oblong 8vo., written at Stuart's headquarters near Aldrich's Tavern, just east of Chancellorsville, ‘1:30 P. M. May 1st 1863', to Fitzhugh Lee, cavalry brigade commander under Stuart. Price writes in pencil on a lined sheet of notebook paper, in full: ‘General: Musketry can now be heard about ½ miles below Aldrich's; also cannonading. The ball has probably opened. The General [Stuart] directs that you watch out and endeavor to find out what is going on about Chancellorsville, so that you can take advantage of the right moment to press forward. Our videttes [mounted scouts] at this point are opposite Aldrich's facing towards the Plank Road & are up even with the railroad cut.' He signs ‘R. Channing Price A A G' at the conclusion. On the verso, Price addresses the message ‘Brig Gen Fitz Lee Comdg Cav Brigade'. The message shows expected folds with one split thereto at top left, is slightly ragged at the right and bottom edges where Price detached it from a larger sheet, and shows small tears at the top left corner and center left edge. Being written in pencil, the text is light in a few areas, but is entirely legible throughout. The sound of gunfire that Price refers to is almost certainly that of the initial clash of the battle, between the forces of Lafayette McLaws and George Sykes, which began shortly before noon. Price would receive his mortal wound just after six o'clock that evening, only five hours after writing the message presented here. Despite Price's loss, and that of ‘Stonewall' Jackson in the following days, Chancellorsville would stand as one of the strongest Confederate victories of the Civil War.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $499 $20
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000