Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

A Guide to a Thomas S. Bocock Letter, Accession 10612-a, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

Letter was purchased on September 6, 1988.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This is a letter from Confederate Speaker of the House Thomas S. Bocock (1815-1891) to Brigadier General John H. Winder , provost marshal of Richmond , August 26, 1862. Bocock thanks him for having sent blank passport forms for the use of House of Representative members during the previous session and requests a new supply. The Confederacy required its citizens to obtain passports for identification purposes, especially for travel through certain areas of the country; these were difficult to obtain as passport offices were open only for limited hours of the day. Confederate congressmen were occasionally arrested by provost marshals for not having these documents. In 1864 the Confederate Congress ordered that special passports be issued for its members "for the gaze of the ten thousand provost marshals who line all the highways and byways of the country."

Winder (1800-1865), a West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican War, was appointed a brigadier general in June, 1861 and later served as Richmond's provost marshal from May, 1862 to February, 1864. He was responsible for the treatment and supervision of prisoners of war, the detection and apprehension of spies, traitors, and deserters, and briefly regulated the prices of goods and certain services in the city in an effort to control inflation and speculation.

This letter has been interfiled with Bocock's other papers under accession number 10612, Box 8, in the folder "Thomas S. Bocock Letters."