Letter from the Attorney-General to Hon. Powell Clayton [...]

(Transvestism) [Velázquez, Loreta Janeta]. Wasson, L.J. United States Congress. Senate. Letter from the Attorney-General to Hon. Powell Clayton, communicating information in relation to the treatment of United States prisoners in the penitentiary in Georgia (44th Congress, First Session: Mis. Doc. 76). N.p.: n.d. [1876]. 8vo, single leaf, disbound, chipped. Printed letter from a “Mrs. L.J. Wasson” to President Grant, protesting the mistreatment of prisoners laboring for private companies (chain gangs) in Georgia, shortly after the Civil War. Wasson draws an analogy to slavery and expresses the danger of holding such “republican” opionions in the south “under the threat of [exile].” L[auretta?] J[aneta] Wasson was one of many aliases used by Loreta Janeta Velázquez, self-described Confederate soldier and controversial author of The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Otherwise Known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford (1876). Most of Velázquez's battle experience has since been refuted, but some compelling evidence remains that she served disguised as a man. SOLD