Specializing in Authentic Civil War Artifacts
  • Captured Confederate Tin Drum Canteen / SOLD

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    Captured Confederate Tin Drum Canteen - Inventory Number: CON 163 / SOLD

    Wonderful original tin drum canteen with leather strap.  This is the classic style of a C.S. tin drum canteen. One convex side and one flat, this example is complete with its tin spout and all three sling keepers are present. Edges, spout and keepers are present and affixed via lead solder. Measures approx. 6 ½” in circumference by 2” wide. The body is solid with just a few small dings, dents and scratches from age and use. Shows areas of light surface rust. An original leather sling of 48” is still supple and exhibits a black enamel roller buckle.  

    An original museum display tag is present which bears the calligraphy like inscription: “Confederate Canteen picked up by Charles H. Heard 22nd Battery Ohio Lt. Art.

    George H. Heard was 18 years old. Enlisted on 1/12/1863 as a private into OH 22nd Light Artillery. He was transferred out on 10/1/1864 into the Veteran Reserve Corps. He was Mustered Out on 2/25/1865.

    There is a faint incised name of the original owner in the tin which has not yet been discerned.  This is an essential item for any Confederate collection.

     George H. Heard

    Enlisted on 1/12/1863 as a Private. 18 years old.

    On 1/12/1863 he mustered into OH 22nd Light Artillery

    He was transferred out on 10/1/1864

     (Estimated date of transfer)

    On 10/1/1864 he transferred into Veteran Reserve Corps

    He was Mustered Out on 2/25/1865

     

    OHIO TWENTY-SECOND LIGHT ARTILLERY (TWENTY-SECOND INDEPENDENT BATTERY, "NEIL'S")

    (Three Years)

         Twenty-second Independent Battery Light Artillery. - Capts., Henry M. Neil, Amos B. Alger; First Lieuts., George W. Taylor, Peter Cornell, Harvey Burdell, Silas H. Towler; Second Lieuts., Jacob M. Sharp, William West.  A section of this battery was organized April 1, 1863, and placed on duty at Wheeling, W. Va., and in Holmes county, Ohio.  This section was brought back to Camp Chase on June 19, 1863, the organization completed, and mustered into service on July 14, 1863, by Capt. J. L. Proctor of the 18th U. S. infantry, to serve for three years.  The battery was sent to Parkersburg, W. Va., and thence to Wheeling.  From Wheeling it moved to Hancock, Md., in support of Gen. Kelley, and then returned to Parkersburg, sending out detachments in pursuit of Gen. Morgan, then on his raid through Indiana and Ohio.  After the capture of Morgan the battery returned to Camp Chase.  On Aug. 12, 1863, it marched to Camp Nelson, Ky., and on Sept. 1 marched toward Cumberland gap.

    It arrived in front of the gap on Sept. 7, and took part in the operations which compelled its surrender.  On Jan. 3, 1864, a detachment under command of Lieut. A. B. Alger, in company with a force of 350 cavalry, while on a reconnaissance at Jonesville, Va., was compelled to surrender after 12 hours, fighting, for want of ammunition.  On Feb. 14, 1864, Lieut. George W. Taylor was murdered by a Confederate citizen, near Barboursville, Ky., and on June 21, 1864, Peter Cornell was killed by Confederate guerrillas, near Cumberland gap.  On June 27, 1864, the battery was ordered to Knoxville, Tenn., and on July 5, 1865, it was ordered to Camp Chase, Ohio, where it was mustered out on the 13th, in accordance with orders from the war department.

     

    VETERAN RESERVE CORPS (Originally the Invalid Corps.)

    The Invalid Corps, which was the forerunner of the Veteran Reserve Corps, was organized under authority of General Order No. 105, War Department, dated April 28, 1863.

    A similar corps had existed in Revolutionary times as is shown by a Resolve of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, adopted June 4, 1781, and concurred in by the Senate, July 6, 1781, providing that there be furnished to Captain Moses McFarland, commanding the Invalids doing duty in and about Boston, 146 pairs of overalls, 146 hunting frocks, 146 hats, 146 knapsacks, and 146 pairs of stockings, and that the same be charged to the United States.

    The Invalid Corps of the Civil War period was created to make suitable use in a military or semi-military capacity of soldiers who had been rendered unfit for active field service on account of wounds or disease contracted in line of duty, but who were still fit for garrison or other light duty, and were, in the opinion of their commanding officers, meritorious and deserving.

    Those serving in the Invalid Corps were divided into two classes: Class 1, partially disabled soldiers whose periods of service had not yet expired, and who were transferred directly to the Corps there to complete their terms of enlistment; Class 2, soldiers who had been discharged from the service on account of wounds, disease, or other disabilities, but who were yet able to perform light military duty and desired to do so. Such men were allowed, under General Order No. 105 above referred to, to enlist in the Invalid Corps. As the war went on it proved that the additions to the Corps hardly equaled the losses by discharge or otherwise, so it was finally ordered that men who had had two years of honorable service in the Army or Marine Corps might enlist in the Invalid Corps without regard to disability.

    By General Order No. 111, dated March 18, 1864, the title Veteran Reserve Corps was substituted for that of Invalid Corps, and this title is used in almost every case in the present work, whether the reference is to transfers and enlistments prior to March 18, 1864, or to those made subsequent to that date.

    The men serving in the Veteran Reserve Corps were organized into two battalions, the First Battalion including those whose disabilities were comparatively slight and who were still able to handle a musket and do some marching, also to perform guard or provost duty; the Second Battalion being made up of men whose disabilities were more serious, who had perhaps lost limbs or suffered some other grave injury. These latter were commonly employed as cooks, orderlies, nurses, or guards in public buildings. There were from first to last from two to three times as many men in the First Battalion as in the Second, and the soldiers in the First Battalion performed a wide variety of duties. They furnished guards for the Confederate prison camps at Johnson's Island, Ohio, Elmira, N. Y., Point Lookout, Md., and elsewhere. They furnished details to the provost marshals to arrest bounty jumpers and to enforce the draft. They escorted substitutes, recruits, and prisoners to and from the front. They guarded railroads, did patrol duty in Washington City, and even manned the defenses of the city during Early's raid in July, 1864.

    An excellent sketch of the history of the Veteran Reserve Corps may be found in Volume V, Series III, of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, pages 543 to 568.

    There were first and last twenty-four regiments in the Corps. In the beginning each regiment was made up of six companies of the First Battalion and four of the Second Battalion, but in the latter part of the war this method of organization was not strictly adhered to. The 18th Regiment, for example, which rendered exceptionally good service at Belle Plain, Port Royal, and White House Landing, Va., in the spring and early summer of 1864, and in or near Washington City in the latter part of the summer and through the fall of that year, was made up of only six Second Battalion companies.


    Inventory Number: CON 163 / SOLD