Polish Rebellion 1863

[Howard Weinert]

Here is one from off the beaten track:

A folded fieldpost letter sent by Prussian Major General von Stuckradt, the commandant of Fortress Thorn, to His Highness the Imperial Russian Colonel Prince von Wittgenstein in Wloclawek, Poland. The front of the letter is inscribed "military mail to be forwarded by Imperial Russian Captain Mikulicz." The back has a handstamped seal reading Royal Prussian Command Thorn. The letter, which is on stationery of the Royal Command of Fortress Thorn and is dated 2 October 1863, includes a copy of a report received that same day from the nearby Prussian town of Schulitz. That report by Second Lieutenant Spalding of the 5th Pomeranian Infantry Regiment No. 42 reads, "The steamship Praga owned by Count Zamoyski left Schulitz today pulling 10 barges, two of which are loaded with sulfur. From the newspaper I learned that the Imperial Russian Government at Warsaw has established an embargo on sulfur." This letter is evidence of the military cooperation between Russia and Prussia during the suppression of the Polish insurrection. Wittgenstein was a Major General and military governor of Wloclawek. Count Andrzej Zamoyski was a Polish nationalist who owned a fleet of steamships on the Vistula River. The Russians had exiled him abroad in 1862.

[Chris Grimshaw]

Howard

Great item, Very nice.

Chris