Red Feb 3 New Orleans integral rate marking 5 cents, collect "Via Red River" on folded cover to Texas.

Contract Mail Steamboats carried Postal Department Route Agents, who took on-board mail, sorted, delivered to, and collected from, postal authorities along the way. This letter traveled from Alexandria, La. , overland to Jasper, Texas, to Zavala.

The Steamboat "Red River" ran from New Orleans to Shreveport, 1852 1857.

This is the earliest recorded cover, one full year before the ASCC listing.