Lot 1070
New Orleans La. Jan 26, red cds with manuscript "Way 1" rating and matching cross-hatch ties 5¢ red brown (1), three large margins, on Jan. 25th 1851 folded letter from Mobile Ala. to New Orleans La., F.-V.F.Estimate $500 - 750.
This cover entered the mails at the Mobile post office, was put in a bag and loaded onto the daily steamboat running between Mobile and New Orleans under contract for Route #5612. There were numerous non-contract steamboats running down-river from Memphis, one of which carried the cover in the following lot into New Orleans. Mail contracts for service between northern Mississippi River cities and New Orleans were not let by the Post Office on the assumption that a cover originating in Memphis, this example, would probably be dropped at the next major post office. That wasn't the way it worked, most often. The recipient, Buchanan Carroll probably had a standing agreement from their correspondent in Memphis to see to it that the steamboat captain carried their correspondence over the entire route.
Realized: $375