CSA 7-R, 5¢ blue pair (tiny faults) tied RICHMOND VA. MAY 9 1863 CDS, Powell type 5a, used on May-July 1863. The pale green cover is addressed to M.H. Cook, New Market Dist G.& C.R.R. Abb(eville) District South Carolina with interesting manuscript directive at lower left: “P.M. pleas (sic) forward by the Mill Way Carrier in double quick if you please.” A nice unusual addition to any CSA collection. Ex William A. Fox and Harry Muldrow. $200.

The “Millway Carrier” notation has always been a bit of a mystery. Both pre-war and CSA covers are known with the Millway Carrier notation. Even though the cover originates in Virginia, the mark is associated with the Millway SC post office. Millway was also the name of a plantation in that area. Richard Krieger wrote a two-part article on the Millway Carrier notation that appeared in the May-June and July-August 1988 issues of the Confederate Philatelist. In his article, he outlined the confusing mail routes in the Millway region of the Abbeville District and points out that the Millway Carrier notation is seen only on covers addressed to New Market SC. New Market was a depot on the Greenville and Columbia Railroad some 15-20 miles distant from Millway. Neither New Market nor Millway appear on a current map of South Carolina. He further concluded that the notation was a routing instruction applied by the sender to make certain that the letters were carried on to Millway by the official government mail routes. Thus, this was not a private carrier service. There has been speculation among SC postal historians that a slave from the plantation may have been used at least occasionally to take the mail from New Market to Millway, but this remains speculation.