CALHOUN, JAMES MONTGOMERY (1811-75) Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia – 1862-65; Recipient of the famous “War is Cruelty” letter from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman upon the surrender of the city, September 1864

Check signed by the Confederate Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, just two months before the fall of the city…

Civil War-Date Document Signed, 3 ¼” x 7 ½”, “City Clerk’s Office, Atlanta, Georgia, July 1, 1864…J.M. Calhoun,” a partly printed check drawn on the city account, payable to one “John Haslett” in the amount of thirty dollars, compensation for expenses described only as “Streets”; dated just two months before the city was surrendered to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on September 2, 1864 and countersigned by another city official.

Lightly and evenly toned, with a few light creases and minor staining, wear, and soiling; text and signatures are unaffected by a two-inch horizontal tear, with no loss of paper, at the mid-right edge.