English: Postal Date: January 4, 1866, Valparaiso, Indiana

Scott Catalog Number of Postage Stamp: 65 Collection: Steven R. Shook

SENDER: Gen. R. A. Cameron Valparaiso, Indiana

RECIPIENT: C. P. Moser, Esq. Phelps, Ontario Co., N. Y.

ENVELOPE TEXT: THE VALPARAISO, IND., REPUBLIC. A Live Paper! GEN. R. A. CAMERON, Editor and Proprietor. THE ONLY PAPER IN THE COUNTY! An Exclent [sic] Advertising MEDIUM FOR Northern Ind.

REMARK: Robert Alexander Cameron was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 22, 1828. He moved with his parents to Valparaiso, Indiana, in the early 1842, where he attended the local public schools. Cameron graduated from Indiana Medical College in 1849. He also attended Rush Medical College in Chicago; however, he soon gave up his medical studies.

In 1857, Cameron purchased the Valparaiso Republican, a local newspaper, from William Talcott. Thomas McConnell and Henry W. Talcott would buy out Cameron in 1858 and rehire William Talcott to manage the editorial staff of the Valparaiso Republican.

In 1859, Cameron purchased the newspaper back from McConnell and Talcott and renamed the newspaper The Republic. Cameron served as a Republican delegate to the 1860 convention in Chicago, supporting the campaign of Abraham Lincoln for U.S. President, and in 1861 sold his newspaper business to E. R. Beebe in preparation for service in the Civil War.

During his Civil War service, Cameron would prepare letters and send them to The Republic, essentially becoming a war correspondent. His wife was managing the editorial operations of the newspaper under E. R. Beebe.

When the American Civil War began, Cameron was a newspaper publisher and doctor in practice at Valparaiso, as well as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives. He enlisted in the 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment, a three month regiment, and was elected captain on April 23, 1861. With the 9th, Cameron saw service in the Western Virginia Campaigns. After those three months were up, Cameron re-enlisted for the duration of hostilities and was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 19th Indiana Infantry Regiment on July 29, 1861.

In September 1861, Cameron and the 19th Indiana Infantry Regiment fought in a skirmish at Chain Bridge, one of the bridges over the Potomac River leading into Washington, D.C. After the action Colonel Solomon Meredith, Cameron's brigade commander, thought highly of his performance, stating that he "rode the lines giving orders and maintaining a calmness that was not even shattered when the concussion of a shell brought his horse to its knees." Despite this praise, Cameron was not able to get along with Meredith, and asked Indiana Governor Oliver Morton to be removed from the 19th and assigned elsewhere. His request would be granted early in the following year.

On February 3, 1862, Cameron was transferred to the 34th Indiana Infantry Regiment, and Cameron and the 34th fought in Missouri at the action near New Madrid and the following Battle of Island Number Ten that February to April. He also participated in the capture of Memphis, Tennessee, on June 6. Cameron was then promoted to colonel and given command of the 34th Indiana Infantry Regiment, both on June 15.

With his regiment Cameron participated in the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign, where he was slightly wounded in his eyes during the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1. Cameron was promoted to brigadier general in the Union Army on August 11, 1863. After several stints of brigade command in late 1863 and 1864, he led a division of the XIII Corps during the 1864 Red River Campaign. During the Battle of Mansfield in Louisiana on April 8, Cameron's men attempted to reinforce the crumbling Union line around 5:00 pm, but were forced back when it finally broke near 6:00 pm.

Cameron finished the war in district command in the Department of the Gulf at Thibodaux, Louisiana. On March 13, 1865, he was appointed a brevet major general in the Union Army, and he resigned his commission soon after on June 22.

By January 1866, Cameron had apparently purchased The Republic newspaper back from E. R. Beebe and rehired Thomas McConnell to his staff. In November 1866, Cameron sold his newspaper to Gilbert A. Pierce, another officer that served in the Civil War, and Pierce immediately sold the newspaper to Aaron Gurney.

Gurney had been publishing a competing newspaper in Valparaiso called the Porter County Vidette; Gurney would merge The Republic and Vidette under the Vidette and Republic masthead. Using his sale proceeds, Pierce would establish The Republican newspaper in Valparaiso. By 1868, Pierce merged his newspaper with Gurney's Vidette and Republic and merged operations would continue to use the Vidette and Republic masthead.

After selling his newspaper, Cameron headed west and was active in establishing farm colonies in Colorado, and was also prominent in the politics and the economic development of the former territory. In 1870, Cameron was influential in founding of Greeley, and was elected president of Greeley’s board of trustees in 1871. He was lured away by William Jackson Palmer to become superintendent of a new colony, which later would grow into the city of Colorado Springs. Cameron also took part in an attempt to establish Fort Collins.

Cameron then moved to San Francisco, California, where he stayed there for few years before returning to Colorado to serve as a postal clerk in Denver. From 1885 to 1887, he served as warden of Colorado State Penitentiary. On March 15, 1894, Cameron died on his farm near Cañon City, Colorado, and is buried there.

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