Advertising corner card for Pheonix Foundry, Lent, South & Shipman, Land & Marine Engine Builders, New Albany, Indiana addressed to Capt. J Bragdon. Struck with a New Albany, Ind. Dec 1 circular datestamp and bold black PAID 3 in circle. Red "ADV 1." boxed handstamp indicating the letter was advertised in New Orleans.
The addressee, Joshua Bragdon (1806–1875) of New Albany, Indiana, was a Union loyalist and part-owner of the steamboat William Bagaley, which was captured by Union forces in 1864 while attempting to run the blockade. A former partner in the Southern firm Cox, Brainard & Co., Bragdon had returned to Indiana at the start of the Civil War, distancing himself from his Southern business interests. After the Bagaley was seized and sold at auction, he filed a claim for his one-sixth share of the vessel, arguing he had never supported the Confederacy. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied his claim on the grounds that he had abandoned his property by failing to act sooner.