AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM WASHINGTON, 15 FEBRUARY 1827, TO HUGH PEEBLES, CONCERNING WOOL'S MORTGAGE ON REAL ESTATE WHICH PEEBLES WISHES TO SELL

Single leaf, 7-7/8" x 9-5/8," Old folds, entirely in Wool's hand in neat ink manuscript. Signed at the end, with a flourish, John E. Wool. Very Good.

Wool writes that he "has recently been informed that you are about, or have already agreed, to sell your house and lot, on which I presume I have a mortgage, to E. Wilson Esqr. Apprehensive that you may have been induced to the agreement, under the expectation that I should indulge Mr. Wilson in the payment of the mortgage, I conceive it my duty to inform you, that, when Mr. Wilson suggested to me the idea of purchasing the property in anticipation of such indulgence, I expressly stated to him it could not be granted and that I could not consent to any arrangement other than that which existed between you and myself." Wool acknowledges that "the subject is a delicate one, and relates to a family nearly connected with Mrs Wool." After his signature, Wool appends a postscript, stating that he "should be pleased to receive a line from you on the subject of this letter."
[With:] 5-3/8" x 7-1/4" engraved portrait of General John E. Wool (toning, staining to edges). New York: Johnson, Fry & Co., 1858. Facsimile signature beneath engraving.

When he wrote this Letter Wool, a career Army man, was Inspector-General of the Army. During the course of his long career-- which included service in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War-- he earned a well-deserved reputation as an extraordinarily capable soldier and organizer. The oldest general on either side of the Civil War, the 77-year-old Wool commanded the Department of the East.