Lot 1177A

C.S.A. BUSHWHACKER AND 'SPY' CHARLES BROWNLEE WRITES A LAST LETTER TO HIS MOTHER: 'I AM TO BE SHOT AT TEN O'CLOCK TODAY'

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C.S.A. BUSHWHACKER AND 'SPY' CHARLES BROWNLEE WRITES A LAST LETTER TO HIS MOTHER: 'I AM TO BE SHOT AT TEN O'CLOCK TODAY'

Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000

Starting Bid: $2,000

(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

C.S.A. BUSHWHACKER AND 'SPY' CHARLES BROWNLEE WRITES A LAST LETTER TO HIS MOTHER: 'I AM TO BE SHOT AT TEN O'CLOCK TODAY'
CHARLES BROWNLEE (circa 1838-1865) was an attorney from Moniteau County in central Missouri who served as a second lieutenant under Lt. Col. John Schnable of Schnable's Battalion, Missouri Cavalry. During a long and destructive 1863 raid through Missouri, Brownlee was captured and charged with murder and robbery as a 'bushwhacker', as well as acting as a Confederate spy. Sentenced to death by a military commission in Boonville, he escaped before his execution and rejoined Shelby's Iron Brigade as a lieutenant. At war's end, he was arrested and ordered to be executed under the 1863 charges. The execution was controversial at the time, as it seemed to violate the amnesty granted to surrendered Confederate troops. However, all appeals for clemency were ignored by Union authorities. Brownlee had claimed to be a lieutenant in the Confederate service, to which General Grenville M. Dodge replied, 'Shoot him at once; he is not a regular Confederate soldier.' Brownlee appealed to Gen. John B. Sanborn, who was without authority in the case, also refused to intercede, saying, 'I shoot my own murderers and robbers and house-burners, and can't show any favors to the enemy's rascals that I won't to my own.' Knowing of his imminent execution, Brownlee wrote this final heartbreaking 4pp. 8vo. letter in Springfield, Il. on May 10, 1865 to his mother. In part: '...Dear Mother, I am yet living and well, but ere the sun will have reached its midday throne my spirit will have gone to God who gave it. I am to be shot at ten o'clock today, according, as I am told, to the sentence of a commission which tried me at Boonville in 1863, but I do not fear to die. I have faced a thousand of the enemy's muskets and have escaped unhurt, but the few I must shortly meet will end my life and troubles. I hope you will not grieve to much over my sad fate, for in a few years at most we will meet again...I have done nothing for which you need ever be ashamed. Those principals of honor which it was ever your care to instill into my bosom I have always cherished and practised but the close of this revolution has drawn me into its vortex and I must perish...I have been permitted to have my likeness taken it is all you can see of me now...I am in the hands of my enemy and must abide his mercy, be that great or small, though they have treated me with kindness. The Rev. James M. Davidson has promised to write to you for me once I am gone...When last I saw you I hoped to see you once more at least and had hoped the time was not that much farther off - but that meeting must be in the other world...Good by to you all, Charles Brownlee'. Brownlee was shot south of town per orders on May 11th, the day after Dodge's last telegram was received. The letter is consigned from a private collection. It has been cited in Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, page 403.

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$100 $499 $20
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$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
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$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000