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To his Excellency the Governor & Council of Virg^a

        Gentlemen

                        At the request of the members of the Richmond Junior Volunteers we beg leave to solicit your permission for them to retain the arms which they lately were permitted to draw from the armory. We are authorized to say that each Individual will not only pledge himself to take proper care of them, but we ourselves will promise to attend strictly to the order in which they are kept by the Company —

We have the honor to be     .

    Gentlemen                     .

Your Mo. Obt Serv^ts         .

John Lyle   Capt R J V      .

Edgar A. Poe   Lieu^t          .

Richmond 17^th Nov^r 1824

[The original of this letter is in the State Library of Virginia, in Richmond. There is a facsimile in Ostrom, Letters, 1966, facing p. 100. The letter appears to have been written by Poe, in his most elegant and careful hand. The address and date of "Richmond 17^th Nov^r 1824" appears on the same line as the name of John Lyle. A thin underlining stroke appears below "17^th."]

[Ostrom reads "armory" as beginning with a capitalized "A," although it bears a stronger resemblance to the lower-case "a"s in the letter than the upper case "A"s.]

[The envelope is addressed: "His Excellency the Governor [/] and [/] Executive Council  [/] of [/] Virginia," without postmark. In another hand, it is endorsed: "Application of Junior [/] Volunteers for Arms [/] Rec^d 17 Nov 1824."]

[James Pleasants, Jr. was the Governor of Virginia in 1824.]

[This letter uses the old style "ƒ" for the double "s" in the word "permiƒsion".]
 

[S:1 - MS (fac, 1966 - JWO)]