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The following letter was auctioned on eBay (Feb 2007). As listed, the seller did not know the identity of the soldier writing. I figured out it was Lewis W. Campbell of the 11th Maine Infantry. His identity was verified by comparing names of people mentioned in the letter with records on Civil War Data.

Campbell was 21 years old when he enlisted 8/11/62 as a private. His residence was listed as Machias, Maine. He mustered out 2/2/66. His record indicates he was sick and in a hospital in Yorktown, VA, sometime in 1862. He was wounded 8/16/64 in Deep Bottom Run, VA. Campbell was promoted to sergeant in 1863, which was his rank at the time of this letter (2/10/64). On 4/17/65 he was promoted to 2nd Lt. and transferred from Company B to Company A.

In February 1864, Campbell’s regiment (the 11th ME) was part of The Department of the South, Northern District (Corps), Morris Island Division, 1st Brigade.

In the letter he mentions his regiment has only had two men killed since engaging at Fort Morris. Indeed, my research shows they were Horace F. Albee from East Machias, Maine; and Bradley L. Kimball from Hermon, Maine. Albee was a member of Company C., and was killed 12/8/63. Kimball was a member of Company E.

In the letter he mentions Captain Baldwin & Capt Mudgett. Baldwin is Charles Pierce Baldwin of New Sharon, ME; who was 26 years old when he enlisted on 9/8/62 as Captain. Baldwin went on to become a Briagdier-General and a Lt. Col. His brother was Brigadier-General William H. Baldwin of the 83rd Ohio. Baldwin’s picture is right.

Captain Madgett is most certainly Captain Albert G. Mudgett who was 34 years old when he enlisted as a Captain from Newburg, ME., in 1861.

Campbell refers to the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Infantry. The 3rd was part of the 3rd Battallion assigned to Morris Island from January to April 1864.

He mentions G. Strahan who “commanded the fort” [Fort Strong]. This is Charles G. Strahan who was from Providence, R.I., when he enlisted in August 1861 as a 2nd Lt. On November 15, 1863 he took command of the 3rd R.I. Heavy Artillery. He was made Captain 10/2/61.

The Official Records details the following of the 3rd R.I. Heavy Infantry and the engagement at Charleston the Winter of 1863/1864:

During the winter of 1863-4 a large part of the Regiment remained on Morris Island and was almost constantly, day and night, under fire.

SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HARBOR.-After the reduction of Sumter in October, 1863, even until the surrender of Charleston in February, 1865, several companies remained on Morris Island and manned the guns in Wagner, Chatfield, Gregg and the smaller batteries, which were equipped with 300, 200, 100 and 30 pounder Parrots and mortars, and were almost incessantly under fire in artillery contests with the forts in the harbor, Moultrie, Beauregard, Johnson and others, as also in shelling the city, firing sometimes 10,000 shot and shell a month. Men were lost, at times, almost daily. Even a synopsis of the varied and important services performed here by the Regiment, for a year and a half, would render this brief account of the history of the Regiment too extended. Such services require a separate book. During the spring and summer of 1864, the companies on Morris Island were E, F, H, I and DIP, under Lieut.-Col. Ames. Companies D, G, E and L were at Fort Pulaski, under Major Bailey. Battery A was in Florida and C in Virginia, and Co. B at Hilton Head, the headquarters of Col. Brayton, who was Chief of Artillery on the staff of Gen.Gillmore.

Source: Official Records
PAGE 320-65 S. C., FLA., AND ON THE GA. COAST. [CHAP. LIII.
[Series I. Vol. 35. Part I, Reports and Correspondence. Serial No. 65.]

Campbell also mentions Lt. L. Newcomb. This is Lemuel E. Newcomb who was 25 years old, hailing from East Machias, Maine, when he enlisted as a Sergeant into Company C, in early November 1861. Newcomb would later rise to Captain, and was wounded at Petersburg.

Cambell also mentions some men of the 11th Maine are relieving the 9th Maine as of February 1864. It appears that the 9th Maine had been at Morris Island since the previous July. Of the 9th Maine, the Union Army, Volume I, says the following about the 9th’s related activity to Charleston during this timeframe:

on June 24th went to St. Helena island as part of a force under Gen. Strong for the assault on Morris island, S. C. July 4 it went to Folly island, and on the 10th landed on Morris island, where it carried the enemy’s rifle pits in front of their works. The regiment formed a part of the assaulting forces in the attacks on Fort Wagner, July 11 and 18, and Sept. 6. Its casualties in the several assaults were over 300 men in killed, wounded and missing. The 9th continued at Black and Morris islands, S. C., until April 18, 1864.

Cambell also mentions a Major Wood. I have not been able to positively identify him in the Civil War Data records yet. My best estimate at this time is that he is referring to Charles I. Wood but that is uncertain.

Campbell refers to H. C. Adams who is identified as Henry C. Adams of Cherryfield, Maine, at the time of enlistment in 1861. Adams was a 1st Lt. in January 1864.

F. Mason (of Company B) is mentioned by Campbell. This is Fred T. Mason of Waterville, Maine. Mason was a 2nd Lt., at the time Campbell was writing.

Edward Smith of the 9th Maine is mentioned. It is uncertain who this is in the CWD database. It may be Edward M. Smith from Machias, Maine.

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Fort Strong
Morris Island
S.C.

Feb 10 1864

It has been a long time since I wrote you, for I have been so busy the most of the time that I have hardly had the time to devote to my own folks. That I wanted, for I want to write Mother as often as twice a week for I know that she worries more about me than there is any need of but I suppose that is natural. But this morning as I have a few hours that I can stop in my tent I shall try to give you some account of the 17th. Perhaps it will be interesting to you to know how the boys from down east are getting along.

We have moved quite a number of times since I joined the regiment. 13 different times I believe. So you see that we are used to moving. We left (somewhere), FLA the fifth day of Oct 1863. I landed here the 8th. The bombardment commenced the 26th of Oct & has been going on most all of the time since. Although for the last 2 or 3 weeks we have not fired a great deal. [11th Maine regimental flag at right]

Our Reg- has been very lucky since we came here for we have only had two men killed & 12 or 13 more wounded & have lost 7 or 8 by death. Our Reg- has numbered more for duty since we came here than for some time before. I think that it is very healthy here. But fear that it will not be this summer, for this island is something of a graveyard. After every rain storm we have a …. part out burying the bodys that wash out of the sand & in one place where we commence to dig a well we dug out a man’s boot with his foot in it.

You will see by the date of my letter that I am at Fort Strong [Formerly Fort Wagner] Companies of our Regiment came here the 23rd as Garrison … B. Captain Baldwin & Capt Madgett. There is also one co. of the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery here in the fort. Of course you have had a better description of the place than I can give you. I therefore shall only say that it is the strongest & best earth work I have ever seen & everything looks neat and clean. Capt. (?) …G. Strahan of the 3rd command the Fort. He is a fine officer & is liked very much by his men. Capt. Baldwin is second in command. Leut L. Newcomb of … is attached to our Co-. * Companies of our Reg- leave the island today to relieve the 9th Maine on Black Island, while they go home on furlough. I believe that nearly all of the 9th are veterans. About 125 of our Reg- have reenlisted & I suppose will soon be furlough home. They will not let our company reenlist but if they had the chance I think every man would have done so.

Well 1/2 our time has expired & if they do by us as they promised to we shall get out next November. For that was the inducement held out that if we went into an old Regiment we should not have so long to serve. If you know how that is I wish you would inform us. We were paid off yesterday by Major Wood for the months of Nov & Dec 1863 & $20 of my wages are allotted to H.C. Adams. I wish you would tell him that I would like to know wether he has ever gotten any money from me or not. I have never heard wether my money that I allotted goes or not- Col. (?) is still in command of the first brigade & F. Mason of our company is on his staff. Leut H.C. Adams is acting Regimental (?) Master.

By the way our Reg- has got some recruits … I believe & from that number we got one in our co. they have been here about a week. I hear this morning that… a number of our recruits have the measles & one in the hospital.

Well something about our duty in the Fort. We have no night duty at all except when we are fighting. We do the guard duty during the day & are relieved at night by the picketts. Drill 2 hours a day on Artillery. Something quite new to me but I like it much. Garrison inspection twice a week & yesterday as we were paraded for inspection a shell burst over the fort & the pieces came in amongst us but fortunately no one was hurt. & but a few moments after it struck before the boys had in there arms. That’s the first one that has been thrown in to the Fort for sometime. It came from Fort Moultrie {Reb}. We have a fine view of the City of Charleston and hear there fire bells ringing most all of the time for our folks keep throwing a few shots at them & set some of their buildings on fire. By the aid of a good glass we can tell the time of day there from their clock.

Fort Sumter is 2600 yards from here & it looks ragged enough. We knocked the flag staff down a few days ago & I see now they have put up another with a new flag on it. Well it won’t stand long when we get to firing at it.

As it is nearly Drill time I must close hoping soon to hear from you. Give my respects to all ….. Capt Longfellow Co Adams … and tell me who is the next President. The soldiers all say Uncle Abe is the man. I believe that Edward Smith is in the 9th with me but I have not seen him yet. I have seen James Hathaway several times since he came out.

Major General Gillmore was here a few days ago & Admiral Dahlgren was here the 8th. They are both fine looking men.

Yours truly
Your obedient Servant

L[ewis] W Campbell
Serg … ….
Morris Island

Written on the front page of the letter sideways is this last note:

What are the prospects before us? Is the war soon to be closed up or will it live many years longer. I would like to have your opinion on the subject. I suppose before this reaches you, that you will George W Schopper of Jonesboro at home on a furlough from our company.
LW Campbell

Source: eBay auction item (February 2007)

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The 11th Maine Infantry was involved in the following engagements during the Civil War:

• Yorktown, VA - April 5 - May 4, 1862 (Peninsular Campaign)
• Williamsburg, VA - May 4, 1862 (Peninsular Campaign)
• Seven Pines, VA - May 31, 1862 (Peninsular Campaign)
• Bottom’s Bridge, VA - June 27-28, 1862 (Peninsular Campaign)
• White Oak Swamp, VA - June 30, 1862 (Peninsular Campaign)
• Malvern Hill, VA - July 2, 1862 (Peninsular Campaign)
• Gloucester Court House, VA - December 12, 1862
• In North Carolina - January - June 1863
• Fernandina, FL - July - October 1863
• At Morris Island, SC - October - December 1863
• At Black Island, SC - January - April 1864
• Chester Station, VA - May 7, 1864 (Petersburg Campaign)
• Bermuda Hundred, VA - May 17 - June 14, 1864 (Petersburg Campaign)
• Deep Bottom, VA - August 13-20, 1864 (Petersburg Campaign)
• New Market Heights, VA - September 28-30, 1864 (Petersburg Campaign)
• Petersburg Seige, VA - June 1864 - May 1865 (Petersburg Campaign)
• Darbytown Road, VA - October 13, 1864 (Petersburg Campaign)
• Hatchers Run, VA - December 8-9, 1864 (Petersburg Campaign)
• Fort Gregg, VA - April 2, 1865 (Appomattox Campaign)
• Fort Baldwin, VA - April 2, 1865 (Appomattox Campaign)
• Appomattox, VA - April 9, 1865 (Appomattox Campaign)

The 11th Maine mustered in 11/12/61 and mustered out February 2, 1866. The regiment lost 122 killed or died of wounds, and 237 died of disease.

A regimental history of the 11th Maine has been written:

ELEVENTH MAINE INFANTRY. THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT; THE ELEVENTH MAINE INFANTRY VOLUNTEERS IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
By a committee of the Regimental Association. New York,1896. 435 Pages, plus 70 Page Roster. Portrait.

For information about the seige of Charleston, also see:

Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston, 1863. Stephen R. Wise.
The 11th Maine is mentioned on pages: 150, 169, 222, 235, 238, 239, 240, 261.

CDV of a 16th Connecticut Infantry Sergeant named Austin David Thompson. The subject is identified on back in pencil as follows: “Austin Thompson 16th Conn Vol.” The image bears the backmark of “Photographed by William A. Terry, Bristol, Conn.”

The Connecticut Historical Society has a collection featuring many of Thompson’s Civil War letters including one describing the battle of Antietam, another mentioning the charge of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry (Colored) at Fort Wagner, and one describing the execution of two substitutes for desertion.

Thompson was living in Bristol, Connecticut, when he enlisted on August 11, 1862, as a Private. On August 24 of that same year, he mustered into “K” Co. CT 16th Infantry. He was promoted to Corporal on April 2, 1863, and promoted to Sergeant on February 24, 1864. He was captured at Plymouth, North Carolina, on April 20, 1864, and made a prisoner of war. He was discharged on June 8, 1865.

The Connecticut 16th Infantry saw action at, amongst others, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Edenton Road, Providence Church Road, and Plymouth. The 16th had 436 men killed or captured at Plymouth.

CDV of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut.

David Glasgow Farragut (July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was the senior officer of the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and full admiral of the Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his famous order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” though some have claimed he did not say the famous quotation.

Early Life and Naval Career

Farragut was born to Jorge and Elizabeth Farragut at Campbell’s Station, near Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father was serving as a cavalry officer in the Tennessee militia. Jorge Farragut Mesquida (1755 – 1817), a Spanish–Catalan merchant captain from Minorca, had previously joined the American Revolutionary cause. David’s birth name was James, but it was changed in 1812, following his adoption by future naval Captain David Porter in 1808 (which made him the foster brother of future Civil War Admiral David Dixon Porter).

David Farragut entered the Navy as a midshipman on December 17, 1810. In the War of 1812, when only 12 years old, he was given command of a prize ship taken by USS Essex and brought her safely to port. He was wounded and captured during the cruise of the Essex by HMS Phoebe in Valparaiso Bay, Chile, on March 28, 1814, but was exchanged in April 1815. Through the years that followed, in one assignment after another, he showed the high ability and devotion to duty that would allow him to make a great contribution to the Union victory in the Civil War and to write a famous page in the history of the United States Navy.

Civil War

In command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, with his flag in USS Hartford, in April 1862 he ran past Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip and the Chalmette, Louisiana, batteries to take the city and port of New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 29 that year, a decisive event in the war. Later that year he passed the batteries defending Vicksburg, Mississippi. Port Hudson fell to him July 9, 1863.

On August 5, 1864, Farragut won a great victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay. Mobile, Alabama, at the time was the Confederacy’s last major port open on the Gulf of Mexico. The bay was heavily mined (tethered naval mines were known as torpedoes at the time). Farragut ordered his fleet to charge the bay. When the monitor USS Tecumseh struck a mine and sank the others began to pull back. According to legend, Farragut (who was lashed to the rigging of his flagship the USS Hartford) shouted down the order, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” The bulk of the fleet succeeded in entering the bay.

Farragut then triumphed over the opposition of heavy batteries in Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines to defeat the squadron of Admiral Franklin Buchanan.

His country honored its great sailor after New Orleans by creating for him the rank of rear admiral on July 16, 1862, a rank never before used in the U.S. Navy. (Before this time, the American Navy had resisted the rank of admiral, preferring the term “flag officer”, to separate it from the traditions of the European navies.) He was promoted to vice admiral on December 21, 1864, and to full admiral on July 25, 1866, after the war.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farragut

2nd New Hampshire Infantry Private named Abner Durgin who ultimately became a 1st Lieutenant.  The CDV bears the backmark of “Photographed by Herman J. Currier, Fisherville, N.H.”

Durgin was born in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1840 and still living there when he enlisted on May 21, 1861, as a Private. On June 3, 1861, he mustered into “E” Co. NH 2nd Infantry. He re-enlisted on January 1, 1864, and was promoted to Quarter Master Sergeant on February 1, 1864, and transferred from company E to Field & Staff. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and Quartermaster on June 24, 1864. He was discharged on December 19, 1865, and thereafter lived in Concord.

During Durgin’s service, the New Hampshire 2nd Infantry saw action at, amongst others: First Bull Run, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Oak Grove (where it saw heavy losses), Glendale, Malvern Hill, Kettle Run, Second Bull Run, Chantilly, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wapping Heights, Swift Creek, Drewry’s Bluff, and Cold Harbor.

CDV of a Pennsylvania 141st Infantry Captain named Edwin Spalding who was wounded in action at Chancellorsville and also at the Battle of the Wilderness. The CDV bears a pencil identification on back of “Capt. Edwin Spalding 141st Penna Vol.”

Spalding was from Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and enlisted on August 21, 1862, as a 1st Lieutenant and was commissioned into “I” Co., PA 141st Infantry. He was promoted to Captain on December 10, 1862. He was wounded in action on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville and wounded in action again at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. He was discharged on December 16, 1864. This Historical Data Systems printout will also be provided to the buyer.

The Pennsylvania 141st Infantry was composed of recruits from Bradford, Susquehanna, and Wayne counties. They saw their first serious action at the Battle of Chancellorsville, where the 141st Pennsylvania was heavily engaged, sustaining its chief losses in a desperate charge on the morning of the third day of the battle, where it fought with great courage and lost 235 killed, wounded, and missing out of 419 in action.

The regiment also saw action at Gettysburg on July 2 in position at the angle of Sickles’ line, on the right of the Peach Orchard, the most exposed part of the whole field. The 141st sustained fearful losses there. It went into action with 198 men, and 136 were killed, wounded, or missing, some 70 per cent of its numbers. In the ensuing Virginia campaigns, the 141st was engaged at Kelly’s Ford and Locust Grove.

They fought again the following year at the Battle of the Wilderness, where the 141st captured 50 prisoners and the colors of the 13th N. C. It was also fiercely engaged at the Po River and a few days later at the “bloody angle.” The 141st was first to plant its colors on the enemy’s works in a gallant charge at the North Anna River.

More severe fighting followed at Cold Harbor. By July 1 of 1864, the regiment had only seven of its 39 original officers. During the balance of the year, it was engaged at Deep Bottom, Strawberry Plains, and on the Weldon Railroad in both October and again in December.

Mathew Brady Civil War CDV of famous Admiral David Dixon Porter.

David Dixon Porter (June 8, 1813 – February 13, 1891) was a United States admiral who became one of the most noted naval heroes of the Civil War.

Porter was one of the first U.S. Navy officers to bear the rank of admiral; prior to the Civil War, no officer had held a rank higher than commodore, as admiral was considered to have royalist connotations.

In 1861, Porter joined the Navy’s Gulf Squadron in command of the USS Powhatan. He was promoted to commander on April 22, 1861, and to captain on February 7, 1863. He took part in the 1862 expedition up the Mississippi River against New Orleans, in command of 21 mortar boats and several steamers. Aboard his flagship, USS Black Hawk, he commanded the Mississippi River Squadron during the Vicksburg Campaigns in 1862–63 and during the Red River Campaign in 1864. Porter was conspicuous in the siege of Vicksburg, was wounded in his head during the amphibious operations at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, on April 20, 1863, and received promotion to rear admiral on July 4, 1863, the day of the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg. He received the Thanks of Congress in April 1864, “for all the eminent skill, endurance, and gallantry exhibited by him and his squadron, in cooperation with the Army, in the opening of the Mississippi River.”

During 1864 Porter commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and took part in the capture of Fort Fisher in January 1865. He once again received the thanks of Congress:

… to rear Admiral David D. Porter, and to the officers, petty officers, seamen, and Marines under his command, for the unsurpassed gallantry and skill exhibited by them in the attacks on Fort Fisher, and the brilliant and decisive victory by which that important work was captured from the rebel forces and placed in the possession of the United States; and for their long and faithful services and unwavering devotion to the cause of the country in the midst of great difficulties and dangers.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dixon_Porter

Cox was living in Darlington, Indiana, when he enlisted on January 30, 1864, as a 1st Sergeant and was mustered into “B” Co. IN 120th Infantry. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on May 1, 1864, and to 1st Lieutenant on September 30, 1864. His discharge information is lacking.

The 120th was organized over the winter of 1863-64 and left the state on March 20, 1864. It first saw action at Rocky Face Ridge, joining in the charge which routed the Confederates. It then participated in the assault of Kennesaw Mountain and in the battle before Atlanta in July. It was in the siege of Atlanta and engaged at Jonesboro and Lovejoy’s Station. It moved in pursuit of Hood in October as far as Summerville. It was then detached from Sherman’s army, ordered to Nashville, and became involved in skirmishes at Columbia and in the battle at Franklin, where the 120th lost 48 men who were killed or wounded. When it reached Nashville, it took part in the battle of December 15 and 16, joining in pursuit of Hood’s retreating forces. The following year, the 120th proceeded to New Berne, North Carolina. It was in a sharp fight at Wise’s Forks when a furious assault was repulsed with heavy loss on the Confederate side. Joining the forces under Gen. Cox at Kinston, it moved to Goldsboro, meeting Sherman’s army which had arrived from Fayetteville.

Cox was living in Darlington, Indiana, when he enlisted on January 30, 1864, as a 1st Sergeant and was mustered into “B” Co. IN 120th Infantry. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on May 1, 1864, and to 1st Lieutenant on September 30, 1864. His discharge information is lacking.

The 120th was organized over the winter of 1863-64 and left the state on March 20, 1864. It first saw action at Rocky Face Ridge, joining in the charge which routed the Confederates. It then participated in the assault of Kennesaw Mountain and in the battle before Atlanta in July. It was in the siege of Atlanta and engaged at Jonesboro and Lovejoy’s Station. It moved in pursuit of Hood in October as far as Summerville. It was then detached from Sherman’s army, ordered to Nashville, and became involved in skirmishes at Columbia and in the battle at Franklin, where the 120th lost 48 men who were killed or wounded. When it reached Nashville, it took part in the battle of December 15 and 16, joining in pursuit of Hood’s retreating forces. The following year, the 120th proceeded to New Berne, North Carolina. It was in a sharp fight at Wise’s Forks when a furious assault was repulsed with heavy loss on the Confederate side. Joining the forces under Gen. Cox at Kinston, it moved to Goldsboro, meeting Sherman’s army which had arrived from Fayetteville.

Of all American pictorial magazines, Harper’s Weekly, was arguably the most important for six decades.T
It was the most widely read magazines during the American Civil War. Though known for its support of the nion cause, Harper’s Weekly was deemed fairly moderate and mostl accurate. It was well known for its graphic and exciting drawings by Thomas Nast,as well as battlefield sketches of the likes of Alfred Waud.

HW was founded in 1857 by Fletcher Harper, and though it was not the first pictorial magazine, it quickly surpassed its rivals including Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Other competitors during the time included the New York Illustrated News, Gleason’s Pictorial, and Ballou’s Pictorial. Harpers apparently modeled its look after the Illustrated London News. It was sub-titled the “Journal of Civilization”, covering political news, pictures and literature. HW even published literature of Charles Dickens in serial format, from which it gained a wide following.

Harper’s did want to be viewed as a partisan regional journal. Instead, the typical view of the writers and editors of the magazine espoused a moderate-to-conservative Democratic view on most political issues. Harper’s urged compromise on the slavery question. Harper’s object:

“To unite rather than to separate the views and feelings of the different sections of our common county . . . leaving the discussions of our sectarian opinions in Religion, and sectional questions in Politics to their appropriate organs.”

Though starting out as neutral, urging compromise on the salve issue, after the attack on Ft. Sumter Harper’s through its support to the Northern cause and urged military action. It would be nearly two years later when HW would become an outright supporter of Abraham Lincoln, in 1863.

Abraham Lincoln: 1/4th Plate Tintype, Showing Him Seated in the Famed “Brady Chair”. This image was shot by Alexander Gardner on November 8, 1863. The studio chair had formerly been in use at the U.S. House of Representatives.

Brady Imperial Albumen Photograph, “Sherman and his Generals”.

William Tecumseh Sherman is the central focus of this formal group portrait published by Matthew Brady in 1865.  The other sitters are generals Howard, Logan, Davis, Slocum, Mower and Blair.

Photograph taken from life by Brady in Washington D.C. during the Victory parade in May, 1865. General Blair arrived late and Brady photographed him separately and then “pasted” him into the group photo; bottom right.

1/6th Plate Melainotype of C.S.A. Colonel Gilbert Moxley Sorrel.  This image dates to 1863-1864 when Sorrel was a senior officer on the staff of Lt. General James Longstreet.

He is wearing a colonel’s double-breasted gray uniform coat with three stars on the collar.

Sorrel’s kepi, however, remains regulation headgear being well-endowed with braid. His belt rig is secured with a Model 1851 Federal sword belt plate having an eagle device with an applied silver wreath.

His military career began as a private in the Georgia Hussars, an early colonial unit still active in today’s Georgia National Guard. Sorrel’s well-placed connections landed him on Longstreet’s staff at First Manassas.

He served at the general’s side for over three years, being wounded at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg. In October, 1864 Colonel Sorrel was promoted to Brigadier General. He left Longstreet to command a brigade of Georgians attached to Mahone’s Division.

General Sorrel was lightly wounded at Petersburg and returned to the field only to receive a bullet through a lung on February 7, 1865 at Hatcher’s Run. This, Sorrel’s fourth wound, effectively kept him low for the duration of the war. After Appomattox, Sorrel resumed a working patrician’s life in Savannah. His highly praised memoirs, Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer, were published posthumously in 1905.

Confederate 1/6th Plate Ambrotypes of Alabama Brothers housed together in Double Union Case. The sitter on the left had the foresight to scratch his name - M. Shuttleworth - into the field of his portrait. Professional research reveals him to be Morgan Shuttleworth, Co. “H”, 36th Alabama Infantry.

The fellow in the second image, although not identified, is certainly Shuttleworth’s brother given their shared features. In fact, it is plausible that the second image is that of an identical twin!

1850 Census records show Morgan Shuttleworth to have been one of eight children in the Bibb County, Alabama household of John and Molly Shuttleworth. Further investigation should reveal the identity of his look-alike brother-in-arms.

The 36th Alabama, formed in Mt. Vernon, Alabama in May, 1862, spent nearly a year in the vicinity of Mobile before heading north to join the Army of Tennessee outside of Atlanta.

Shuttleworth’s Service Record indicates that, as a recently exchanged POW, he was hospitalized in May, 1864 for what was likely an unhealed gunshot wound to the chest and shoulder. The circumstances and timing of Shuttleworth’s ailment should suggest he was shot during the Battle of Resaca in Georgia. He died the following month.

The brothers are wearing matching militia shell jackets tailored in dark cloth with tinted red piping and three rows of buttons. The buttons on Morgan Shuttleworth’s jacket are not painted and have visible eagles on the face. It is highly likely that these are AVC (Alabama Volunteer Corps) buttons as opposed to common Federal types.

Both men have light military trousers with one pair sporting a tinted red stripe. Good old Southern slouch hats top off these defenders of Dixie. Morgan’s as-yet unidentified brother is double-armed with a menacing D-guard bowie knife and a pocket revolver.

Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (March 16 or March 17, 1828 – November 30, 1864) was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, killed at the Battle of Franklin.

Civil War Recruiting Broadside for the 34th N.Y. Regiment. “GOD AND OUR NATIVE LAND!” is the heading on this 11.5″x 17.5″ medium size poster. Very patriotic in verse with eagle masthead it proclaims, “50 MEN WANTED To complete a Company to be attached to the 34th REG’T. Commanded by Col. Charles Durkee.”

The broadside goes on to list pay, clothing allowance, rations, bounty ($100) and even promises 160 acres of land to each recruit! Printed by Palladium Steam Presses in Malone, New York.

Durkee later became colonel of the 98th New York. It is an excellent example of the patriot spirit in October of 1861.

1864 Abraham Lincoln Ballot Featuring the U.S.S. Kearsarge Sinking the C.S.S. Alabama on the face, California, 1864. The verso of this imprint names Lincoln and Johnson in conjunction with various California Presidential Electors and San Francisco’s Congressional candidate, Donald C. McRuer. By the summer of 1864 the Northern public was demoralized by the endless casualties generated by defeats and hollow victories. The Democratic Party under George McClellan advocated peace and was gaining steam as the November showdown with Lincoln and the Republicans loomed. On June 19, however, the U.S. Navy sank the Confederacy’s most feared commerce raider and this gave Northerners a much-needed boost in morale. Placing a lithograph of the sinking on the ballot gave the voters a reminder that prosecuting the war was getting results.

Lithograph, “Genl Lee At The Grave Of Stonewall Jackson” (New York: John C. McCrae, 1867). This scene was not taken from life, however it would have appealed greatly to sentimental Army of Northern Virginia veterans during the uncertain days of early Reconstruction. Lee is shown in full Confederate uniform standing by the grave of his “right arm”, General T. J. Jackson.

Iowa Volunteers Drum.  The best part about this drum is the old ink inscription on the top head: “F. W. Kimble, Drummer Co B 14th Reg. Iowa Inf. Vols.; War of 1861″.

Francis W. Kimble has a  listed residence of Agency City, IA when he enlisted at age 19 on 10/15/62 as a  drummer. He mustered into Company B., 14th Iowa Infantry on 11/26/62. He mustered out on 11/16/64.

The 14th Iowa saw action at Ft. Donleson, Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing), Vicksburg, and engagements related to the Red River Expedition.

Beautiful Lafayette Artillery New Hampshire Volunteers Guidon. A beautiful fringed guidon measuring 25″ x 26″ , circa 1833-1864, silk, with painted details, in modern frame 33.5″ x 33.5″, under plexiglass, fine condition with some minor wrinkling and a very few small holes and minor tears. This guidon presents a striking image starting with a base of beige silk (now slightly toned with age) with crossed cannons on a field of 13 stars and rays of light. Above the center motif is a scroll with “Lyndeborough New Hampshire” and below a scroll with “Lafayette Artillery”. The painted on features have lost almost none of their color and are still bright and complete. Mounted at the base of the guidon is a brass plaque reading “Civil War Union Flag Carried by N.H. Regiment”. Though the company can trace its roots back to 1804, its Civil War history began in 1864 when it was sent to Fort Constitution to assist in relieving the National Guards and Strafford Guards.

Info about this flag and it’s sale at auction found here

Confederate First National Flag with Seven Star “Crescent” Pattern, Captured at the Fall of New Orleans. 48″ x 33″ and accompanied by family provenance and notarized affidavit of Dorothy B. Morrill, the great-granddaughter of Commander Charles Caldwell of the U.S.S. Gunboat Itasca who captured this flag during the fall of New Orleans in 1862.

The flag is made of flannel and the canton is a faded blue with seven white stars hand applied in a very rare crescent pattern. On March 4, 1861, the Confederate Congress created the Confederacy’s First National flag bearing seven stars as only seven Southern states had yet seceded and Congress was hurried to give the new country a standard to rally around. The stars on this flag were arranged in a wreath, or crescent design, and are believed to have been made in New Orleans, the “Crescent City”. It was believed that more states would secede and room was left to welcome the new states on the flag with a star of their own. In early April of 1862, Commander Charles Caldwell of the Union began the perilous duty of opening the way for Farragut’s fleet to come up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico to attack the Confederate forts protecting New Orleans. Commander Caldwell and a small crew from the Itasca went before the forts under cover of night and cut the chains the Confederates had strung across the Mississippi River to block passage. On the night of April 20th, Caldwell returned to the scene in a ten-oar rowboat to make sure the chains had not been repaired. Dodging fire rafts and risking detection by the Confederates within the forts, he discovered that there was indeed a passage enabling free movement along the eastern shore, and he signaled Admiral Farragut of his discovery. With that signal, the Union fleet sprang into motion and the assault of Forts Jackson and St. Phillip began. It ended five days later with the surrender and capture of New Orleans. Commander Caldwell was lauded for his bravery as he undoubtedly ensured the success of Farragut’s Union fleet that night. Family history firmly documents that it was during this engagement and the surrender of New Orleans that he captured this early style Confederate First National flag. Its seven star “Crescent” design dates between February and April of 1861 and corresponds to its early capture in the Civil War with the fall of the Confederacy’s first major city.

Info of flag and it’s sale at auction found here

General S. S. Lee’s Confederate Navy Flag- The Only Lee Family Flag still in Private Hands. Confederate 1st National Flag from Robert E. Lee’s Family owned and carried by Confederate States Naval Captain Sidney Smith Lee, brother of General Robert E. Lee and father of Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee. Measuring 18″ x 24″, this beautiful silk Confederate 1st National flag with 13 stars was handmade for CS Navy Captain S. S. Lee by his wife, Anna Maria Mason Lee at their Virginia home “Ravensworth” in 1862 after Lee received his appointment in the Confederate Navy. Mrs. Lee was the daughter of John Mason, the Confederate States envoy to England. This was Captain Sidney Smith Lee’s personal Headquarters flag which he used when he served as the executive naval officer in command of the Norfolk Navy Yard during the construction of the C.S.S. Virginia in 1862. With twelve five-pointed stars arranged in a circle and the thirteenth in the center, the last star was added with the admission of Kentucky to the Confederacy in December 1861.

This flag is very unique in that it is the only Lee family Confederate flag still in private hands. The provenance is certain as the flag was passed down to Sidney Smith Lee’s son, Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee who was later Governor of Virginia. The great-grandson of Sydney Smith Lee sold the flag making it available for this sale.

Sidney Smith Lee, the older brother of General Robert E. Lee, was born in 1805 at Camden, New Jersey while his mother was visiting a friend. At the early age of 14 he entered the U.S. Navy and saw action in the Mexican War, as did Robert E. Lee. He prospered in the service and later commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard and was commandant at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. He commanded the USS Mississippi on Commodore Matthew Perry’s groundbreaking mission to open trade with Japan in 1853. Resigning his commission at the outbreak of the Civil War, he received a captain’s commission in the Confederate States Navy. He commanded at the Norfolk Navy Yard where the Confederate gunships were being built and he hung this flag in his office. After the war he retired and died in 1869.

The flag is from the noted William Turner Collection and is accompanied by letters of authenticity from noted flag expert Howard Michael Madaus and provenance including a genealogical chart of the Lee family of Virginia. The flag is beautifully framed by Laurence Gallery.

Flag info and it’s sale at auction found here 

Virginia Regimental Flag Captured by the 53rd Pennsylvania Infantry. This Virginia Civil War flag was captured by Union Captain William W. Van Ormer of the 53rd Pennsylvania Volunteers. This flag has been passed down through his descendants and is being offered for auction for the first time. The war-date portion of the flag is hand-painted on a white central disc that is made by noted flag maker H. P. Keane, probably from Richmond. Keane was commissioned by the state of Virginia to produce military flags for infantry and cavalry regiments and according to noted flag expert and author Howard Michael Madaus, this flag dates from 1861-1862.

The central device is painted on an ellipse (both sides), is approximately 39″ x 37″ (oval), and depicts the Virginia state seal, a standing female warrior with a sword in her right hand and her right foot resting on a prone figure representing the tyrant who has broken chains in his hand and his crown on the ground. Above the figure on a red ribbon is “Virginia”‘ in 1.5″ white block letters while beneath the state motto on a blue ribbon, “Sic Semper Tyrannis”, (Latin for “Thus always to Tyrants”) in the same block lettering. The disc is of wool fabric and has been sewn into the later vibrant blue wool fly for display. This flag is similar to 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment battle flag illustrated in Time-Life’s Echoes of Glory - Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy (p.250). The approximate dimensions of the flag (including fringe) is 56″ x 41.5″ and the overall framed size is approximately 61″ x 45.5″.

Captain Van Ormer enlisted in the 53rd Pennsylvania Infantry in September 1861 and served in the First Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac. The unit would see much action in the war. First assigned to the defenses of Washington, they moved to the battlefields of Manassas, Yorktown, Seven Pines, Antietam and Bull Run. Captain Van Ormer was shot in the left hand at Spottsylvania on May 12, 1864. But it was at Gettysburg when the troops would see their most trying times. Only 45 of the men would survive that monumental battle uninjured.

Regimental records and the Van Ormer family histories indicate that the young captain was with the regiment all the way to the surrender at Appomattox. Exactly one week before Lee surrendered, the 53rd would have one glorious day of overwhelming Confederate troops- and taking one of their flags. On April 2, 1865 at Sutherland’s Station Union Major General Andrew A. Humphrey’s Second Corps included the 53rd Pennsylvania facing off against Virginians under Confederate General Henry Heth. The 53rd swept down the breastworks at a “double-quick” pace capturing over 600 Confederates and one battle flag of the 9th Virginia Infantry. It is not known if this Virginia flag is for sure that of the 9th, but we do know that Van Ormer brought home this war trophy from an overrun Virginia unit in from Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. These regimental accounts give us that story.

Confederate ‘Stars and Bars’ 18th Tennessee Infantry Flag; Captured at Fort Donelson. This striking and beautiful silk Confederate Stars and Bars of the 18th Tennessee Infantry was captured at the surrender of Fort Donelson on February 15, 1862 by Sergeant R. F. Larimer of the 66th Illinois Infantry (Birge’s Western Sharpshooters). The Congress of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States adopted this design, known as the Confederate First National flag, on May 4, 1861. First National flag design implementations varied greatly, especially since they were hand sewn and due to the fact that additional stars for new Confederate states were being added as they left the Union. In this First National flag the style is classical, true to the intent of the Confederate Congress with the circle of white stars in the upper left on the blue field, 7 for the original seven seceding states and the 8th for Virginia, dating this flag to sometime after May 7, 1861.

In the first great victory for the North, this fine example fell into the hands of Union troops, specifically Sergeant R. F. Larimer (as noted in an Adjutant General’s report), about whom we know quite a lot. Born in Scioto County, Ohio on October 27, 1838 he began farming with his brother, eventually purchasing a half-interest in a sawmill. After the outbreak of the war, in August 1861 he rushed out to join an elite unit being formed at Paris, Illinois, Birge’s Western Sharpshooters, later named the 66th Illinois Infantry. One had to be an able marksman to make it into the unit led by Colonel John W. Birge as it was soon off to war and action at the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Union’s first great victory.

The 18th Tennessee Infantry was there waiting. Mustered into service the same month as their adversaries in the 66th Illinois, the Tennessee forces were under the command of Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner. In the early afternoon of February 14, 1862 the Federal ironclads St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Carondelet began shelling the fort. Using the eleven big guns in their water batteries, the southern forces repulsed the gunboat fleet under the command of Union flag officer Andrew H. Foote, wounding Foote during the retreat.

The southern celebration was short-lived. The Union infantry, led by General Ulysses S. Grant was being reinforced, quickly cutting off the Confederates’ possible escape route from the fort. Seizing the opportunity to evacuate some of the troops, Confederate Generals John Floyd, Gideon Pillow, and Bushrod Johnson left Buckner in command and took some 2,000 men and headed toward Nashville. Confederate Cavalryman Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest led additional troops across the Lick River to safety. Seeing this, Grant retook any ground lost earlier and demanded the surrender of the fort. Vastly outnumbered and seemingly doomed, General Buckner asked for terms of the surrender. Grant would reply that there would only be one type of surrender that day, “unconditional.” From that day the 18th Tennessee and their comrades were taken prisoner and their flag captured, Ulysses S. Grant would be the first hero of the Union with a new nickname, “U. S.” (unconditional surrender) Grant. It was at this point that Sergeant Larimer came into possession of the flag seen here today.

The members of the 18th Tennessee would spend seven months in Union prisoner of war camps until exchanged to fight again. They had lost 52 men at Fort Donelson but would lose hundreds more later on at Chickamauga and other battles before being paroled in May 1865.

This elegant Confederate First National flag, the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy, is constructed of two layers of silk. The overall dimensions are 59″ on its hoist and 106″ on its fly. The blue canton measures 39.25″ on the hoist and 34.5″ on the fly. The canton is decorated with eight five-pointed stars arranged in a circle of seven with the eighth star in the center. The stars are appliquéd to each side of the canton using a lockstitch machine on the obverse, the reverse using hand stitching. The stars measure 5.25″ to 5.5″ across their points. The flag’s field is composed of three horizontal silk bars, the upper red one measuring 19.625″ wide, the center white and 19.5″ wide and the lower red one 19.75″ wide. All are hand sewn and hemmed around the periphery of the flag. Thirteen pairs of faded red silk ties, each about .875″ wide and about 5″ long are equally spaced for use in securing the flag to its staff. In the center of the bottom bar on each side is appliquéd a 1.5″ x 9.375″ white cotton label stamped with “CAPTURED AT FORT DONALDSON [sic],/ BY R. F. LARIMER, FEBRUARY, 1862.”

The flag has been researched and authenticated by Howard Madaus, the distinguished expert and author on Civil War flags. It has been conserved by Fonda Thomson and is housed in a protective archival frame for display by Thomson as well. An archive of research concerning the flag, both regiments and Sergeant Larimer accompanies the banner. Sergeant Larimer fought on throughout the South’s bloodiest battles, his younger brother being killed at Kennesaw Mountain. His application for an invalid pension after the war states his reasons for disability as “rheumatism and heart disease contracted at Fort Donelson in 1862.” He died in 1908.

Info about flag and it’s sale at auction found here

The Confederate Battle Flag of the 4th Tennessee Infantry: The Famous Beauregard Design. This “artillery”-sized Confederate battle flag was the product of intense lobbying by General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. Realizing that the states were not supplying flags for their troops and being determined to end the confusion of identifying friend from foe on the battlefield, Beauregard lobbied the Confederate Congress to adopt a more distinctive flag for the Southern forces. After failing in that effort, Beauregard solicited design concepts from his commanders. The result was the design shown here which became the prototype of the Confederate battle flag used at the Battle of Shiloh; it is remarkably intact and only one of two known to exist. Descended through the unit’s last commander, the flag of the 4th Tennessee Infantry was manufactured by the noted New Orleans contractor Henry Cassidy and delivered to the regiment in April 1862. It is one of two flags proudly displayed by Confederate veterans at a Shiloh reunion in 1900 in the photograph below.

Cassidy constructed the flag’s field using a red cotton-wool fabric warp/weft. Emblazoned on the field is the dramatic, fine blue 5.5″ wide St. Andrew’s cross bordered by strips of white cotton. On the obverse, twelve white, six-pointed silk stars are sewn at 4.5″ intervals. Reverse, the blue fabric is cut away to reveal the twelve stars at 2.75″ to 3″ across from point to point. A yellow 3.25″ twill weave serge border is sewn to the three exposed sides of the flag. A 2.125″ wide cotton heading contains the five buttonhole eyelets that finish the staff side of the flag. The overall dimensions are 35.5″ on the staff side and 37″ on the fly. Accompanying the flag, once attached, is a white cotton swallowtail streamer measuring 8″ at the hoist and 44.5″ to the tip of the streamer’s points (40″ to the cut of the swallowtail). Also shown in the 1900 photograph below, the streamer bears the inscription “4th Tenn. Inf.” in block letters.

The most recognizable banner of the Confederacy, the design originally called for flags of different sizes to be issued to the infantry, cavalry and artillery. However, in practice, the flags were issued to units based on availability with no regard to protocol. And the 4th Tennessee would need them. Organized near Memphis at Germantown, Tennessee, it was accepted into Confederate service on August 16, 1861. In just over six months the regiment would lose almost half of its effective forces at the Battle of Shiloh with Brigadier General Charles Clark’s Division. While Colonel Rufus P. Neely would be commended for his bravery at Shiloh, the casualties included the regiment’s Major, John F. Henry. However, Colonel Neely would die soon thereafter in May 1862. After the siege at Corinth and the Battle of Perryville, the regiment was so decimated by the time of the Battle of Murfreesboro that it was consolidated with the 5th Tennessee to form the 4th/5th Tennessee Regiments. Forming the right wing of Stewart’s Brigade, the regiment was honored in their capture of many federal pieces during the battle. Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta and Jonesboro, Georgia would follow. By the time of their surrender at Greensboro, North Carolina on April 26, 1865, the few men shown here left standing and holding this same flag they fought under so many years earlier were lucky to be alive.

Info about flag and it’s sale at auction found here

The Confederate Battle Flag of the 31st Tennessee Volunteers, “The Western Stars”. A Confederate battle flag that was never surrendered or captured is a rare find indeed. This flag is just such a rarity. An Army of Tennessee pattern, it was probably delivered to Company A of the 31st Tennessee Infantry when the regiment wintered in Dalton, Georgia from 1863 to 1864 since this pattern is known to have been issued at the Dalton Depot. Ensign William Bellew daringly carried this flag through every battle until the ill-fated Battle of Nashville in December 1864 where he was captured by federal troops. Bellew stripped the flag from its staff before the Union forces could take it from him, concealing it inside his coat under the cover of darkness. Taken to Camp Chase, Ohio as a prisoner of war, he quickly quilted the flag into the lining of his coat. Released in June 1865, he returned home to Gibson County, Tennessee with the flag still secretly sewn inside his coat.

Bellew’s mother is responsible for the flag being transferred out of the family’s hands. When Dr. George W. Nowlin, a medical doctor who had been the hospital steward of the 31st during the war found out that Mrs. Bellew had been flying the flag in her garden to scare off marauding birds, he sent for the flag to keep it secure. The flag has descended to its present owner through the Nowlin family.

Measuring 35″ on the staff and 51″ on its fly, the flag is made of hand-sewn red wool traversed by a 5.25″ wide dark blue bunting St. Andrew’s cross edged on each side with a 2″ wide strip of white cotton. The cross bears thirteen white cotton 3.25″ diameter five-pointed stars set at 8″ intervals from the center star. Accompanying the flag is a 24″ cotton strip stenciled with the words “Co. A 31 Reg. Tenn. Vol.”.

Company A, called the ‘Western Stars’ of the 31st Tennessee regiment of the Confederate Infantry was formed out of Weakley County, Tennessee and organized with the regiment in Gibson County at Camp Trenton in September 1861. Under the command of General J. P. McCown, the regiment moved to Columbus, Kentucky and on to Fort Pillow and by April 1862 was in Corinth, Mississippi. Passing through Tupelo and Chattanooga, the regiment saw action at the Battle of Perryville where it lost 100 men. A contemporary account by a Federal soldier at the battle stated that the 31st Tennessee attacked “with death-defying steadiness, uttering wild yells until staggered by the sweeping crossfire of our artillery…” And the regiment would suffer for their bravery, the casualties only multiplying throughout the rest of the war; 250 at Chickamauga, 300 at Franklin in one day, 600 dead within fifty yards of them. Just two weeks later William Bellew would carry the same flag that he waved in these actions into the Battle of Nashville. His quick thinking on the battlefield combined with the wisdom of Dr. Nowlin and his descendants have preserved this unique treasure from the Civil War.

Info about this flag and it’s sale at auction found here 

Confederate Battle Flag of the 3rd Tennessee Infantry; Captured at Fort Donelson This late 1861 Confederate Hardee 1st pattern design flag with a bright blue field and white canton “3rd Tenn” stenciled in black ink was captured at Fort Donelson by Union forces of the 66th Illinois “Birge’s Western Sharpshooters”. Descended through the family of then-19 year-old Union Private Prosper Bowe of Coloma, Michigan, this flag is believed to be the only one of its kind still in private hands. Private Bowe was one of three brothers enlisting in the fall of 1861 when the federal government ordered ten companies of sharpshooters to be recruited for General Fremont. Due to the strict marksmanship criteria of the troops, the regiment was composed of men from many states. At the same time Confederate Brigadier General William Joseph Hardee was forming what would become the Army of Central Kentucky. While at Bowling Green he designed the distinctive flag design shown here. There is evidence that the wife of General Hardee as well as General Simon Bolivar Buckner’s wife actually made some of the flags. The fact that there are so few examples of the 1st pattern Hardee flag may be due to their early issuance in the war. And many like this were obviously captured.

The 3rd Tennessee Confederate Infantry was formed on May 16, 1861 at Giles County, Tennessee. Composed of ten companies of handpicked men, the regiment immediately traveled to Nashville and camped at the fairgrounds. They received their weapons at the state capitol and were taken by rail cars to Camp Cheatham. Led by Colonel John C. Brown, a strict disciplinarian, the troops’ first real engagement under this flag was at Fort Donelson, Tennessee reaching the post on February 8, 1862 with General Buckner in command. Union gunboats attacked on February 14, 1862 but were repulsed. Due to some Confederate confusion, and thanks to reinforcements to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant, the Confederates surrendered two days later. The North had its first great victory and a new hero in Grant. Nicknamed “U. S. Grant” after that battle since he had demanded “unconditional surrender” from General Buckner, Grant proceeded to take charge of the surrendered troops.

Fort Donelson was the occasion of the 3rd Tennessee meeting the 66th Illinois and of losing this flag that ended up in Private Bowe’s hands. Losing 13 men and 56 wounded, the remainder of the regiment was surrendered. The Confederate officers were taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, the enlisted men and non-commissioned officers to notorious Camp Douglas, Illinois. After 7 months of incarceration, the officers and men were loaded onto boats for the journey down the Mississippi River for parole at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The 66th Illinois continued on throughout the war fighting in Mississippi and throughout Georgia. Private Prosper Bowe survived the war sending accounts of the conflict back home. On July 22, 1864 while in Atlanta, he wrote that the Confederates were “…bound to get to our trains but we had something to say about that.” The Sharpshooters were by then armed with Henry repeating rifles, the forerunner of the Winchester. Of that experience Bowe wrote, “I stood and fired nearly ninety rounds without stopping. My gun was so hot I could not touch it - spit on it and it siz.” Bowe mustered out on July 7, 1865 and returned to Michigan.

Info about the sale of this flag found here

HDQRS. CHIEF OF ARTY., DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND,
Chattanooga, Tenn., January 14, 1864.

Brig. Gen. J. M. BRANNAN,
Chief of Artillery, Department of the Cumberland:
GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following written report of my inspection of a portion of the artillery in this department, between the 25th of December, 1863, and 9th of January, 1864; in addition to which I submit a regular inspection report:

Excerpt: (just the fort at Franklin)

FRANKLIN.
Fort is in very good condition. The magazine is large and leaks badly, but a shed was being put over it to try to keep it dry. The ammunition did not seem to be damaged from dampness, it being frequently taken out and aired. The magazine is used for a commissary store-house as well as to keep ammunition.

The fort is armed with one 30-pounder Parrott, two rifled 24-pounders, and three 8-inch siege howitzers; another 8-inch howitzer is in a small work a few hundred yards northwest of the main work. The men are in comfortable huts inside the fort; they drill well. Military appearance, care of guns and implements, and police very good. The garrison, consisting of two companies of the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, are also quartered inside the fort. The lieutenant-colonel commands the post.

O.R.– SERIES I–VOLUME XXXII/2 [S# 58]
UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY, SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA, AND NORTH GEORGIA, FROM JANUARY 1, 1864, TO FEBRUARY 29, 1864.–#4
Page 90-92

Brady photos in LOC
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/f?cwar:0:./temp/~ammem_Kl2K:

New York Historical Society - Civil War Treasures
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/f?cwnyhs:0:./temp/~ammem_YJNR:

~ by tellinghistory on December 29, 2006.

Robert Christie of Blue Grass (Fulton Co.), Ind., and John Harvey Grable of Metea (Cass Co.), both served in Co. E, 29th Indiana Infantry, during the Civil War, seeing duty in Kentucky and Tennessee. Typical western soldiers, they were neither the most literate nor the least among their peers, writing home to describe their daily lives in the service, their hardships and hopes.

Perhaps what stands out most in the Grable and Christie letters is the degree of community felt between the soldiers in the field and their families in Indiana, and the rigors of service at such a distance from hearth and home often come through. From early in their duty, the 29th discovered both the intensity of resistance and the miserable happenstances of war. While still in camp in Indiana, Christie wrote home about a brutal, but not atypical incident in such a divided state. Last night, he wrote, a Captin and five men brought in a seches [secesh] from Plymouth, the one that stab a solder some six weeks ago. He was tried by civil law and discharged so the Colonel ordered him to be brought into camp. He swares that he will die before he will take the oath so I suppose we will have the job of hanging him… (Oct. 11, 1861). Their own men, it seems, later proved to be as dangerous. Christie witnessed an incident of the most intimate friendly fire. The man that was shot, he wrote, belonged to the 30th Reg. and was on picket when he was ordered to another place. He had to cross of the beat of another the night was dark and he did not see the guard nor him speak when the guard shot. he lived about half an hour. The one that shot him was a personal friend belonged to the same company…

For the 29th Indiana, however, disease was as great a foe as minie balls. Caught in a smallpox epidemic, Christie found himself quarantined in an effort to contain the outbreak. As for the smallpox there is a great deal of dispute among the doctors some say one thing, some another. As soon as it was found out ‘Crain’ was removed to himself about fifty yards from or to one side of the Regt. and the other five of us about the same disdance from ‘Crain.’ We waited on him day about for five days then a man who has had the pox took our place in waiting on him. The same man brought us what we wanted, our provisions part of the time from the ‘Co.’ part of the time from the ‘Hospital.’ We fared a great deal better than what we did when in the ‘Co.’ as for being guarded, there was no guard around the tent. We could go where we pleased around the camp. The ‘Surgeon’ told us we had better not go in the ‘Regt.’ as they were badly scared. We stayed there a week then the ‘Surgeon’ ordered us back to camp… Ironically, Christie fell ill with a bad cold and cough for three weeks but, as he wrote, I commenced getting better from the time I stoped taking the ‘Doctors’ drugs.

Grable found conditions little better, and duty no less arduous: on duty every day ferreting one day and picket the next. We never had as much dutey to do in our lives before we hafter just bea on the trate all the time and I think we have a very sickly place to camp. We git out water out of a well the same well that we got water out of last fall when we were camped heare after chickamaga battle. The colenel sayes that we will get to stay heare all sumer but I don’t want to for I now that it will bea the sickelyist place ever… (April 3, 1864)

26 items, including: Maj. Silas Grimes, 31st Indiana Infantry (7 letters), and Pvt. Joseph S. Taylor, 22nd Indiana Infantry (5 letters).

Harrodsburg was a typical small town in Indiana during the Civil War, sending many of its sons into service in the 31st Indiana Infantry, while at the same time spawning numerous southern sympathizers. The Taylor Family Papers includes over two dozen letters and documents relating to Harrodsburg’s Robert Taylor (presumably no relation to the languid actor), almost half of which are letters from his son and son-in-law in the army.

Silas Grimes, Taylor’s son-in-law, served with the 31st Indiana, a regiment that saw hard service in Kentucky and Tennessee. Grimes’ letters are most distinguished by the dialogue he carries on from the front lines with his father-in-law and, by extension, with the people back home in Harrodsburg, regarding his motives for serving in the military. Slavery was an issue for Grimes, but clearly not a motive for serving, but neither did he have any truck for the Copperheadism endemic to Indiana. When writing that he would come home in spring, for example, he noted that he did not mean to imply he would do so dishonorably or “on account of the Proclamation,” but only that he would make every effort to come home unless, as he put it, “the folks don’t turn to[o] much Secesh at home. I don’t want to fight Rebels abroad for two years,” he added, “and then go home and find Rebel sympathizers right among my own relatives… Don’t let the Negro corrupt your patriotism. What if evry Slave in the United States be freed and the Government saved, I would think it all right myself. The first thing to be done is to save our Country and then we can se what is to be done with the Negro. It becomes necessary now that the Slaves should be taken from disloyal Slaveholders. Slavery has been the main stats for the Confederacy while they have turned out evry effective white to fight us they have had the Negro to raise their subsistence… if it had not been for Slavery we would have had no war. The war was waged by Southern aristocrats upon the laboring class of the North simply because they thought they were to good to live under the same administration that the laboring people of the free States lived under…”

A week later, Grimes continued: “I am in for no compromise, nothing but an unconditional surrender on the part of the Confederacy would suit… I don’t expect to change the minds of men at home neither did I wish for that purpose. Traitors are Traitors…,” and in November, his father picked up the theme, but with an even harder edge. “I don’t indorse the acts of Abraham the first,” he wrote. “I am opposed to secestion and all so abolitionism. They are both violaters of the constitution of our country. I don’t believ that ther ever wold hav bin any seceshionist had it not hav bin for the abolitionist party. I believe the made the rebbles…”

The members of the 31st did more, however, than concern themselves with motives, they were a fighting outfit that took part in a number of major battles, including Shiloh, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga. As the 31st fought below Nashville during the hard month of July 1863 — the precursor to Chickamauga — Grimes wrote: “for two months we were skirmishing and fighting regularly. Since that time we have driven the enemy on an average of two miles a day having marched 120 miles from our starting point two months of that time our Regt was never out of range of the enemys bullets, balls continually whistling over us day and night had no assurance at night… many a poor fellow was killed while sleeping. Our regt has lost 25 killed and 1000 wounded…”

Near Atlanta, on Aug. 10, 1864, Grimes wrote an excellent account of life in the Atlanta Campaign. “We are still fighting a little every day, have not possession of Atlanta the place we started out to take but it must soon fall. We are so close to the city that we can se the whole thin. It is a large place looks to be about as large as Indianapolis… ladies occasionally come out from the city for protection. They say our cannons are tearing everything to pieces killing women and children but we cant help that. They must leave the place if they want the Artillery firing stopped. We have great reason to be thankfull for our success generally this summer, yet our success in this department has been run by some very hard fighting. We have been under fire from musketry and Artillery since the 5th day of May. Whilst writing this letter balls frequently whistle over my tent by so they don’t hit me it is all right…”

Grimes’ brother in law, Joseph Taylor’s letters from the 22nd Indiana, contain less bloodshed, but provide insight into the vicious partisan struggle in the border states and deep south, more generally. In a lighthearted vein from Otterville, Mo., he joked with his father about soldiers camping near their home: “I guess you have learned something about soldiers. You complained about loosing your chickens. That is nothing new to us. Don’t think hard of them for that for I will get as ma[n]y back here in Missouri…”

Pursuing Confederate forces from Missouri into Tennessee, on May 26, 1862, Taylor wrote: “Tha are a fighting a little every day but haven’t braught on an genral ingagement yet. We will be marched out to the line to day or tomorrow. I expect thare will be Bloody times before this fight is over…” The land, he later added, was devastated. From Corinth, Miss., in June, he described the desolation: “you can see a grate many houses here that you can see no body but a few blacks. Som times you see white wimon and children but no men an ast them whare their men are som will tel you that their men has volunteered in the rebel armey an som will say that their men was prest in the rebel armey.” Taylor died that autumn at the Battle of Perryville.

A surgeon in the 124th Indiana, William King’s Civil War service was at its most intense during the Atlanta Campaign, when his regiment was almost continuously engaged. Five of the ten letters that survive document that campaign in serial fashion, beginning with a letter mentioning the rough field hospitals that dotted Tennessee in 1864 and 1865, a harbinger of things to come. The letters that follow document the mechanical, unstoppable force that was Sherman’s army.

May 21, 1864: “Two weeks ago the great fight commenced and we have been in line of battle or on the march guarding trains ever since… We have driven the rebels from their fortifications and have been all this week following them up and fighting them as we go. They will probably make a stand twenty miles from here and give us another battle. The boys have marched hard… We are encamped in the most beautiful country but is desolated by an immense army. The most of the people have gone and left their splendid homes to be ransacked by soldiers. The little village of Cassville near which we are encamped is a beautiful town but the houses are torn down, fences destroyed, and everything laid waste. I have seen enough of war to make me ardently hope for a final close to it.”

June 15, near Dallas, Ga.: “We are gradually passing down into the open country pushing the rebels before us. We are all anxious that they shall make a final stand and let us fight it through, but they do not seem disposed to do so. They get into their strong holds in the mountains and we have to flank them and then they fall back again and so it has been for weeks fighting more or less every day… There has been almost continual skirmishing amounting to considerable fights at times. Killed and wounded are brought in every day. We have field hospitals and hospitals back six miles on the rail road but these are miserable places and a sick man stands a poor chance here…”

June 23: “The rebel prisoners that I have seen are all large fine looking and healthy men. They don’t look much like being starved. I think what starving is done is on our side. Our boys are nearly all the time on short rations and they would give any thing almost for sow belly as they call it, as they draw none of it, but get fresh beef instead. I do not eat the beef as it is poor and badly butchered…”

July 25: “We are laying in front of Atlanta throwing shells into the city occasionally and expecting to attack it. We crossed the Chattahoochie River on the 8th of the month and have after the Rebs ever since. Our Regiment are now in fortifications immediately in front and in sight of the town. We are continually exchanging artillery shots and skirmishing, although neither party are loosing many men for several days… I was in our breastworks day before yesterday on Co. I of our Regiment when one of the boys was shot by a sharp shooter through the breast and killed immediately. I was standing near enough to touch him when he was killed…”

Oct. 17: “We have had a lively campaign so far, with short rations and no baggage. We started from Decatur on the 5th of this month and having been going ever since except two days… We were sent with our Brigade to reinforce the garrison at Altoona, but got there just after the fight was over. The fight there was one of the brightest pages in the history of this war. The garrison lost 33 per cent of their whole number. They killed and wounded more than their whole number. We had to take in the wounded and dead rebs for several days after the fight. The rebs have left the railroad here and it is supposed have gone south again… we have been chasing them for ten weeks. We caught up with them near Rome and our Corps was sent after them. We captured two cannon & a lot of butternuts. I dressed the wounds of four that were badly wounded. We had about thirty prisoners all together. These are all we have had the pleasure of seeing yet. They were only a brigade that had been left to match our army…”

includes a steel military bit with U.S. surcharge stamped on the cannon bar region. Bit with brass side disks stamped U.S. on stippled background. One pair of steel stirrups stamped RIA 1912 NS on inside, complete with leather straps. Second pair of steel stirrups stamped Never Rust on outside on both pairs, complete with leather straps. Third pair of stirrups composed of German silver with U.S./G.A.P. and U.S./A.B. stampings on stirrups. Void of leather straps. PLUS, curry brush stamped U.S. inside an oval with Herbert Brush Mfg. Co. stamped immediately above oval.

leather attached to pommel section with rosette bosses. Cantle section with hand-tooled designs. Complete with girth strap and large wooden looped stirrups - typically used in the Western theater of the Civil War. Underside of saddle with bare leather exterior - unlike the more commonly Confederate used burlap to cover the saddle tree.

The nomenclature of this saddle is not derived from mule associations, but rather from an American contortion of a French term meaning “without a horn”.

The “Muley” saddle is generally associated with the Confederacy. This version of the saddle appears to be an early model. [See Dorsey & McPheters, 1999: 68-70].

rolled brown calf leather on tin can base in which spools of thread were stored, interior with 2 pockets in silk and pads for needles, unrolled it is 11″ x 4.5″, closed it is 2″ diameter with fabric pin cushion ends.

No. 232 is a needle and thread case that was used by soldier in the Civil War…This one was carried through the war by Wm. C. Stephens, 4th Ohio Infantry…

William Stephens served as a musician in Co. I, 4th O.V.I.

11 double appliquéd wool-silk blend stars hand-sewn onto wool-silk blend canton with machine sewn wool-silk blend stripes. Across the front of the white stripe is embroidered To Freedom`s battle on, we send them and God of Battle thy help lend them. Across the reverse of this stripe is embroidered Our cause is just, our duty we know, and In God we trust, to battle we go. The entire flag is edged in a deeper blue color silk ribbon. There remains 1 red silk tie and the remnants of 2 others. Approx. 34.5″ x 81.5″. We believe this to be a UCV period color. Complete with a gilt bronze painted torpedo-shaped cotton bag that has remnant of a pull-string closure (some paint loss throughout).

hand-sewn with red thread with 11 painted five-pointed stars in ring on blue canton, red edging at fly, salmon pink bars on fly and one white silk bar, each 7″, 6.5″ and 6.75″ high, 20.25″ x 36″. This flag would date from between June of 1861 and Dec. of 1861 (Tennessee seceded in June). This flag has a period ink signature in lower right corner, which appears to read Mollie or N-llie, likely the name of the maker or presenter of this flag. This flag is accompanied by a signed document of examination of this flag from Howard Michael Madaus, C.W. Vexillological Services, including a detailed typed description of this flag and his comparison with other Confederate First Nationals he has personally examined and his conclusions that this is a martial flag from the period.

both machine and hand-sewn silk with canton sewn in by hand with 34 gold painted 5-pointed stars in two rings with 4″ corners surrounding the letter F, fringed in white silk tassels with three silk ties at hoist, 23″ x 30″ with 2″ tassels, archaically framed and pressure mounted in plexi frame, 29.5″ x 25.75″ with gilt lettered brief unit history mounted below flag.

Hampton’s Independent Battery was under fire sixty-two times during the war, being engaged at Morton’s Ford, Mine Run,Second Bull Run, Cedar Creek, Fisher’s Hill, Winchester, Berryville, Chancellorsville, Strasburg, Ft. Royal, Antietam, Stony Creek, South Mt., Gettysburg, Kerntown, Lacy’s Springs, Rappahannock Station, Charletown, Blackburn’s Ford, Chantilly, White Hall Church, 2nd Winchester, Luray, Newtown, 2nd Newtown, 2nd Cedar Ck., Waterloo, Hancock, White Sulphur Springs, Mt. Jackson, Gaines Cross-Roads, McGaugheyville, Freeman’s Ford, and others.

a regulation stand of first issue national colors made of heavy silk, hand sewn with embroidered 35 star canton in 5 rows of 7 stars, gilt painted text on 5th red strip reading 1st N.C.C. Heavy Artillery with black painted shading, 70″ x 78″, archivally framed in gold leaf wood frame, 72″ x 80″. The block style of the black painted shading together with the size and stacked arrangement of the stars is indicative of a Cincinnati Depot contract.

The 1st North Carolina Heavy Artillery was organized at New Berne and Morehead City in March 1864 with nearly 1300 officers and men in the usual 12 companies. The regiment formed part of the local New Bern district garrison within the Department of Virginia and North Carolina until March 1865 when the designation was changed to the 14th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. The regiment remained in service until December 1865 when it mustered out without seeing any combat. Partial descriptive rolls for the 14th USCHA are online and show that the vast majority of recruits were local men. A handful of soldiers from other USCT regiments were transferred to the 14th, a few with prior combat experience on the Petersburg front.

Authentic national colors carried during the Civil War are exceedingly rare in the public domain. Nearly 2,400 stands of national colors and about the same number of regimental flags were produced under contract by the three depots–New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati–and only a handful of well-worn survivors reside outside of state and institutional jurisdiction.

an unmarked, imported M1850 with 30.25″ etched blade and partial leather scabbard with plain brass mounts. Etching is typical floral pattern with patriotic motifs and U.S. in center. Brass hilt with cutout U.S. in guard, leather wrapped grip with complete brass wire. Worn black leather scabbard with brass furniture missing drag and upper carrying ring. Sword is attributed to Captain Jonathan H. Martin of Covington, Indiana who is also listed in the rosters as Thomas H. Martin. Martin joined Company E, 63rd Indiana in August 1862 and later transferred to Company H, 123rd Indiana becoming captain in February 1864.

The regiment participated in the Atlanta campaign with the 23rd Corps. Captain Martin mustered out in Raleigh.