American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents

1 page, 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 in., creased, with light wear to edges. With postally used envelope addressed to "Miss Hattie Peck" of New York, with handstamp reading, "Prisoner's Letter / Examined / G.S.B. / Johnsons Island. O."

Penned while confined at Johnson's Island, Devall writes to his cousin, Hattie, in part: "Many thanks for your kind invitation to pay you a visit. I must decline just now for Uncle Sam objects most seriously to any-thing of the kind...I have made a few rings & intend manufacturing quite intensively when some of the oldest captives get away. 300 Left to-day. I can't say when my turn will come. Excuse a poor letter for you know the regulations concerning correspondence..."

David Devall lived in West Baton Rouge when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted at the age of 19, serving with the Delta Rifles (Company F), in the 4th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. At some point Devall was chosen to serve as captain of the Irish Guards (Company B), and it was in this capacity that he was captured, with many of the men from his regiment, at Nashville in December of 1864. He was held as a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island until the end of the war, when he took the Oath of Allegiance and was released. After the war, Devall returned home and participated in local politics, including service in his state legislature for two terms. He died in 1913, survived by eight children.