Lot
602 
"Santa Fee/Nov 6 }", manuscript Military Express endorsement clearly written on greenish-blue folded letter datelined "Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 22nd 1847" from 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant William F. Snyder in Hook's Company E, 1st Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, to his brother John in Belleville, Illinois, carried east by military express on the Santa Fe Trail, it entered the mails with "Independence Mo. Nov. 16" cds and manuscript "10" due rating; small piece of last page missing, but almost all of the content is intact, Very Fine, ex-Irwin Vogel, Birkinbine. Estimate $10,000 - 15,000.
THIS IS THE EARLIEST RECORDED MARKING OF ANY KIND APPLIED AT SANTA FE TO MAIL CARRIED BY MILITARY EXPRESS, WHICH WAS THE ONLY MEANS BY WHICH LETTERS COULD BE SENT TO OR FROM THIS ARMY-OCCUPIED NEW MEXICO TOWN.
After General Stephen W. Kearny occupied Santa Fe on August 18, 1846, a military express was established over the Santa Fe Trail. Mail was carried over this route via Bent's Fort (or the Cimarron Cutoff), and eastbound letters entered the mails at Fort Leavenworth or Independence, Missouri. On May 11, 1850, the contract for monthly mail service on the same route was awarded to Waldo, Hall and Company commencing July 1. Examples of military express mail typically do not have any markings applied at Santa Fe. The "Santa Fee Nov. 6" postmark is dated the day the express departed, two weeks after the letter was written.
This chatty letter between brothers mentions the names of no less than fifteen enlisted soldiers and officers in the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the Illinois Volunteers. Lieutenant Snyder enlisted at Alton, Illinois, on May 26, 1847, and arrived in Santa Fe (Military Territory of New Mexico) on September 16, 1847. He was discharged at Alton on October 14, 1848.