Semmes, Paul Jones (1815-1863) [Contract with Tredegar Iron Works]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00503 Author/Creator: Semmes, Paul Jones (1815-1863) Place Written: Richmond, Virginia Type: Autograph document signed Date: 27 December 1860 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; 25 x 20 cm. Order a Copy
Semmes's autograph retained copy, marked as a copy. Contract with Joseph R. Anderson, owner of Tredegar Iron Works, in preparation for war. Semmes was acting as agent for the State of Georgia. Orders six 18 pounder cannons, 1500 rounds of solid shot, 200 spherical case shot, and 100 canister shot. Stresses the need to provide this order without delay. Details the price Georgia will pay. Tredegar provided the Confederacy with almost a thousand cannons during the war and was the Confederacy's most valuable manufacturer. "... This contract made and entered into... by and between General Paul J. Semmes... and Joseph R. Anderson... hereby covenant and agree to fabricate furnish and deliver... six eighteen pounder cannon of the present Army pattern..." Anderson went on to serve as a Confederate brigadier general.
Semmes was a Georgia banker and plantation owner who served as agent for the State of Georgia during the preparations for the Civil War. He served as colonel of the 2nd Georgia in the Confederate Army at the outbreak of the war and was promoted to brigadier general in March 1862. He was assigned to a brigade in McLaws' division of Longstreet's corps fighting in Crampton's Gap, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Salem Church, and Gettysburg, where he was mortally wounded.
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