1 page, partially printed, accomplished in manuscript, Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 10th, 1865, tears and small chips affecting letters, creased, stained. A pass signed by Elijah Benton Withers, Lieutenant Colonel, 13th Regiment of the North Carolina Infantry. In full: "The Bearer, Private N. E. Burton of Co. F 13th Regt. of N.C.I., a Paroled Prisoner of the Army of Northern Virginia, has permission go to [to] his home, and there remain undisturbed. E. B. Withers, Lt. Col. Comdg. 13th Regmt. N.C.I."

A RARE CIVIL WAR PAROLE FROM APPOMATTOX

General Order 43, dated April 11, 1865, stated that officers and enlisted men of the Army of Northern Virginia must carry a printed certificate from Appomattox Court House in order to be identified as a paroled prisoner. 

The 13th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry was organized at Garysburg, North Carolina, in May 1861 with 1,100 men, recruited from Caswell, Mecklenburg, Davie, Edgecombe, and Rockingham counties. Ordered to Virginia, the unit shared in the many campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia from Williamsburg (March-July 1862) to Cold Harbor (May-June 1864), and endured the hardships of the Petersburg trenches south of the James River.  They took part in the Appomattox campaign from March to April 1865, during which the rebel army endured 500 casualties. General Robert E. Lee was determined to make one last attempt to escape the closing Union forces to reach supplies at Lynchburg. The rebel troops advanced, initially gaining ground, before they were stopped in their tracks by the Union infantry, surrounding Lee on three sides. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, and the Appomattox campaign was the final engagement of the war in Virginia.