Flag Of Truce covers are my favorite Civil War covers!   They have both Confederate AND Union stamps and are quite rare.  Most are from captured Confederates held in Northern prison camps.

Each cover is hand-stamped “Prisoner Letter Examined,” shows the prison name, and most have handwritten “Flag of Truce.”  Postmarked in the Union and again when it entered the Confederate system in Richmond.  Condition fine, considering they are over 150 years old and were in the Civil War.   Covers vary.

What Is a Flag of Truce Cover?

During the Civil War, normal mail service between the North and South was suspended. Civilians couldn’t send letters across enemy lines. The only legal way to exchange mail was through designated exchange points, where soldiers — carrying a literal white flag of truce — met to hand over mailbags.

A Flag of Truce cover is a letter sent from the Union to the Confederacy, or from the Confederacy to the Union.  It passed through an approved truce point and was censored and marked according to wartime rules.

They often bear multiple postal markings, such as “Examined” or “Censored,” exchange office date stamps, both Confederate and U.S. postage, and special routing instructions (“By Flag of Truce”).