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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.
32″ blade retailed by Evans & Hassall, Philadelphia etched on both sides with U.S. and with E. Pluribus Unum. Brass hilt, ribbed brass handle wrapped in brass wire. Metal scabbard with fancy ornate brass fittings with acanthus leaves and scrollwork. Metal scabbard with lengthy inscription that reads, Presented to 1st Lieut. James R. Mulliken, Post Adjutant at Camp Wm. Penn March 16, 1865 by the Chelten Hills, PA, Troops at said Post as a Token of Regard and Esteem for Him as an Officer and Man.
The highly regarded James R. Mulliken is unknown. The single reference to an officer by this name is found in the Official Army Register, Vol. 8, p. 278 under the roster for the 97th USCT. Here, he is listed as 1st Lieutenant from December 7, 1865, but the date of rank is inconsistent with that indicated by the presentation coupled with the fact that the 97th USCT served its entire term in the Department of the Gulf. James R. Milliken was not a regular officer nor was he located in the Pennsylvania rosters under that name or permutations thereof. Camp William Penn was a rendezvous and training camp used exclusively by USCT regiments. At least eleven black regiments were organized there between 1863-65.
34.25″ blade made by Hortsmann and Sons, Philadelphia. with etched panel on both sides having U.S. and E. Pluribus Unum. Brass hilt and shagreen handle. Black leather scabbard with brass fittings and an attached brass oval plate that reads, Presented by the Citizen’s of LLewellyn, to Lieut H. J. Alspach Co. A., 50th Regt. P.V. as a Testimonial of Their Appreciation of His Gallant Services in His Country’s Defence Feb. 1863.
Alspach enlisted as 1st sergeant in Company A. in September and served for the duration, mustering out in July 1865. He was promoted 2nd lieutenant in September 1862 and first lieutenant in September 1864. Alspach was advanced to captain in October 1864 but never mustered. The 50th Pennsylvania was a 9th Corps outfit that saw extensive service in both theaters. The regiment was involved in South Carolina coastal operations before reinforcing the main army for Pope’s 1862 summer campaign, seeing action at Groveton, 2nd Bull Run and Chantilly. The 50th was engaged at Antietam and Fredericksburg, transferring west in the winter of 1863 and joining Grant’s army at Vicksburg. The regiment participated in Burnside’s dreary Knoxville campaign before rejoining Grant now in command of the Army of the Potomac for the deadly summer battles intended to outflank and wear down Lee’s army through attrition.
The veteran Pennsylvanians served until the very end at Appomattox and proudly marched in the Grand Review on May 23, 1865. Before mustering out on July 30 the regiment was selected to represent the infantry of the Army of the Potomac at the laying of the cornerstone at the Gettysburg National Monument on July 4. This sword was likely a silent witness to that momentous event.
Music Box, carried by General Felix Agnus, 165th NY
in a mahogany box with single comb cylinder type box, 4-6 tunes, with plaque on lid reading Carried During Civil War By/General Felix Agnus/And During World War 1 & 2 By Caption Felix Agnus Leser. The box is 12″ x 5.25″ x 4.5″ high.
Felix Agnus enlisted in 1861 as Sgt. in 5th N.Y. Infantry and later served with 165th N.Y. Infantry when he received his commission. While with the 5th, Agnus saw action in most of the major battles of the Peninsula Campaign. During his service with the 165th he saw actions during the siege of Port Hudson, Franklin Expedition to Sabine Pass, TX, Vermilion Bayou, Red River Expedition, and other lesser engagements.
Yellow mount stereoview, No.41, Title “Steamer Planter, Charleston, S.C.”. American Views, Standard Series.
Sheet music - Louisville Citizen Guards
Louisville Citizen Guards, published by D.P. Faulds & Co., Louisville, Ky, n.d., Sarony, Major & Knapp, N.Y. lithographer, with hand colored lithographed cover of two militia men at attention with tent camp in background, after a daguerreotype by Webster & Bro., Louisville, 5 numbered pages with blank rear cover,
August of 1860. Kentucky is represented here (below) with Simon Bolivar Buckner’s unit the Kentucky State Guard at Louisville. This is Bucker’s own unit, the Citizen Guard. They would be the heart of the 5th Kentucky Infantry in the Confederate Army.
Kentucky had both pro-Southern and pro-Northern militia elements. The pro-South Kentucky State Guard may have used a blue flag with a light blue circle in the center, which bore the federal coat of arms therein. One such example for a KSG unit does survive today.
