85. LORING'S WEST VIRGINIA BROADSIDE An exceptional, and quite rare, pair of printed broadsides, each 6 1/2" x 13", each headed "To the People of Western Virginia Charleston, Va. Head Quarters, Department of Western Virginia, Sept. 14, 1862", an extremely scarce pairing consisting of the printer's galley proof and the corrected first edition. In command of Southwest Virginia, Confederate General William Loring occupied the Great Kanawha Valley, establishing his headquarters at Charleston. The Union Army had previously occupied the area and forced the editor of the Kanawha Valley Star to flee for his life. Some of Loring's men had been experienced newspaper printers in civilian life and revived local paper The Star Press for army use. Among other items, they issued a Confederate Army newspaper, The Guerrilla, September 28, 1862. General Loring wanted peace among the citizens, who were mostly of Confederate sympathy, and ordered a broadside printed for distribution to the civilians headed: "TO THE PEOPLE OF WESTERN VIRGINIA, September 14, 1862", reads: "...The Army of the Confederate States has come among you to expel the enemy, to rescue the people from the despotism of the counterfeit State government imposed on you by Northern bayonets, and to restore the country once more to its natural allegiance to the State. We fight for peace and the possession of our own territory. We do not intend to punish those who remain at home as quiet citizens in obedience to the laws of the land, and to all such clemency and amnesty are declared; but those who persist in adhering to the cause of the public enemy, and the pretended State Government he has erected at Wheeling, will be dealt with as their obstinate treachery deserves...". Probably a dozen copies were printed on heavy, rough newspaper stock and given to Loring and his staff for approval. Evidently, corrections were made for a few words were changed but the main body of type was left intact. For identifying the galley proof and the corrected first edition, approximately 15 changes were made to correct misspellings, grammar and "dirty" type. These broadsides have been the subject of some controversy over the years due to the mistaken opinion by respected West Virginia author Boyd Stutler, a correspondent for the American Legion Magazine. On one of his stops to a book dealer in New York, he saw three or four copies of the later printing and after noting the changes in type and lighter paper, promptly stated they were counterfeit. June 25, 1948, in Midland Notes # 41, the catalog of the Midland Rare Book Co. in Midland, Ohio, Wessen advertised a copy of the galley proof and stated it was the first edition, information given to him by Stutler. Autograph dealer Mary Benjamin later advertised a copy of the correct first edition and sold it. When Stutler told her it was a fake, she refunded their payment and gave an account of the transaction in her later catalog. Stutler was mistaken in his assumptions about the corrected first edition however. If this had been a counterfeit, no corrections would have been made. The new one would have been as near the old one as possible. So the case of type used for the galley proof was used for the regular issue, the type being scrubbed and cleaned after the corrections were made. Mary Clark Roane, an expert in Confederate imprints, first solved the problem and the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond confirmed her opinion. John Thomas, a New York paper expert stated the galley proof was on cheap newspaper pulp and the true first edition was printed on a thinner but better grade newspaper pulp and was also contemporary to the period. The galley proof here is in fine condition with very slight toning. The corrected first edition is a bit brighter with a light dampstain in the upper left, else fine. Accompanied by a complete study of the differences in the broadsides.              $3,000 - 4,000