Confederate States of America - Sea Battle Ironclad Vignette - August 30, 1864 - Ball 286

Beautifully printed certificate from the Confederate States of America dated March 1, 1865 (15 days before the war ended) . This historic document was printed by George Dunn & Company, Richmond, Virginia and has a border around it with a vignette of a Union and Confederate battle at sea. The CSS Virginia sinking the USS Cumberland on March 8, 1862. This hisotric certificate was issued under the act of February 17, 1864. This certificate has been hand signed by the Register of the Treasury, Robert Tyler. Foxing due to poor quality of paper the CSA was forced to use during the end of the war.


Certificate Vignette

As an ironclad, the ship was known as the C.S.S. Virginia. Prior to her rebuilding as an ironclad, she had been the U.S.S. Merrimack (named for the Merrimack River). Her name is (and was) often misspelled as "Merrimac" because of a larger, more widely known region of New Hampshire and central Massachusetts that was spelled without the "k".

Robert Tyler (1816-1877), the Registry of the Treasury, was a son of U.S. President John Tyler by his first wife. Tyler was head of the Democratic party in Pennsylvania and a personal friend of President James Buchanan before he had to flee to the Confederacy. Through his father's influence, he procured the post of Register of the Treasury, which he held from August 13, 1861 to the end of the war. After the war Tyler moved with his family to Alabama, where he became a newspaper editor. He also became the head of the Democratic Party in Alabama.