Model 1858 Smooth Side Canteen Carried by James H. Sanborn 2nd New Hampshire Infantry Wounded at Gettysburg and Drewry’s Bluff / SOLD
Classic Civil War U.S. issued smooth side canteen. This one retains all three strap loops and pewter spout. The body of the canteen is in good condition with some light rust spots and a few dents from use. The center of the canteen body retains an old paper label with no writing visible. The original cloth sling is complete and in good condition, with the stenciled marking “Jas. H. Sanborn 2ND NHV.” Jason H. Sanborn enlisted in August 1862 as a private in the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry. He was wounded Gettysburg, July 2, 1863 while engaged in combat at the Peach Orchard. His disability pension records indicate that he suffered a gunshot wound to the neck. James was taken for treatment to Baltimore and hence to Annapolis until he recovered, returning to active duty in January 1864. During the fight at Drewry's Bluff on May 14, 1864, James suffered a gunshot wound to the right leg, shattering his' tibia. The ball was embedded in the shaft of the tibia. The company muster roll for July & August 1864 remarked that James was "absent sick at Hammond Gen'I Hospital at Pt. Lookout Md. Wounds received May 16/64". "Absent sick" was the remarks listed, up until he was discharged for disability on May 20, 1865 while at the Depot Hospital in Concord. The examining surgeon stated that James would not be fit for duty and that he was entitled to a disability pension of three- fourths degree. Since November 9, 1864, James was furloughed to go back home to be attended to by Dr. Charles Sanborn (of no relation) in his' hometown of Hampton Falls. Sanborn's initiation of a claim for an invalid pension in 1869 includes several letters and reports from the attending surgeons, and a sworn affidavit from Edwin Bailey (at the time serving as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 4th US Infantry stationed at Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory). The statements include details about the extensive operations performed to remove diseased bone from the infected tibia and how it's inflammation rendered it impossible for Sanborn to pursue his' civilian occupation without "great pain and danger'. Whenever he engaged in physical work the inflammation would worsen and extend. He would go on to receive a monthly pension of $6.00.
On October 1, 1873 James married Hannah Elizabeth Green. Hannah was the widow to James' older brother Thomas who died in 1866. They had a daughter together, Lillian Thayer, on August 27, 1876. James died shortly thereafter, on October 17, 1878. His' death certificate lists the cause as "Disease congestion of the lungs'. Hannah applied for a Widow's Pension in April 1879. Initially the claim was denied on the grounds that the fatal disease which had taken her husband was not related to his service during the war. Hannah re-submitted her claim in 1880. More reports and sworn statements were collected to prove that James had died as a result of his wound received at Drewry's Bluff. The extent of his suffering after the war was astounding. Frequent inflammation made it nearly impossible for him to walk on the affected leg, often times being confined to the house and unable to work. He was often dependent and attended to by his lather's family. It is reported that at the time of one operation, to cut out 'diseased' pieces of the bone, in 1868 his health 'was completely broken down by his suffering from his leg - besides the canes, there existed ostitis-perostitis and inflammation of soft parts of his leg causing great suffering...' frequent bouts of fever, sweatings, and congestion of the lungs were a result of the near chronic inflammation. In 1876 his weight was only 105 lbs. Further statements from Dr. Sanborn would ultimately lead to getting Hannah her pension. Her late husband succumbed to the gunshot wound received over 15 years previous. Hannah collected a pension until her death on January 31, 1908 at her home in Hampton Falls. She was last paid $12. In his last written statement concerning Hannah's pension application, Dr. Sanborn wrote, "In my professional experience I have never known a patient to suffer more. In my judgement the said James H. Sanborn died from his gunshot wound as certainly as if he had died on the battlefield in 1864.
There are 39 pages of documents related to Pvt. Sanborn's Civil War service from the National Archives included with his canteen. A fantastic Civil War canteen that conveys a poignant history.
James H. Sanborn - Residence was not listed; 19 years old. Enlisted on 8/9/1862 at Hampton Falls, NH as a Private. On 8/30/1862 he mustered into "I" Co. NH 2nd Infantry. He was discharged for wounds on 5/20/1865 at Concord, NH. He was listed as: Wounded 7/2/1863 Gettysburg, PA. Wounded 5/16/1864 Drewry's Bluff, VA.
Other Information: Born in Hampton Falls. Died 10/17/1878 in Hampton Falls, NH. After the War he lived in Topeka, KS.
SECOND REGIMENT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY (THREE YEARS)
By Hon. MARTIN A. HAYNES, late Private Second Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry and Historian of Regiment.
A LARGE proportion of the original members of the Second Regiment were enlisted for three months, service under President Lincoln's first call; many of them among the earliest recruits in April, 1861. But early in May, while the regiment was still in camp at Portsmouth, orders were received from the War Department to send no more three months' troops. Most of the men thereupon enlisted for three years, this second muster by companies dating from June 1 to 8. The regiment left Portsmouth June 20, receiving at Boston on the same day, and at New York on the 21st, tremendous ovations from the Sons of New Hampshire and the local authorities.
The regiment arrived in Washington on the afternoon of the 23d, and was brigaded with the First and Second Rhode Island and the Seventy-first New York, the brigade commander being Col. Ambrose E. Burnside. This constituted the Second Brigade of Hunter's division, and opened the fight at the first Bull Run battle, July 21. Colonel Marston was severely wounded here, and the regiment's loss was reported as 7 killed, 56 wounded, 46 missing. Early in August the regiment went into camp at Bladensburg, Md., being brigaded with the First and Eleventh Massachusetts and Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania, under command of Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker. During the winter of '61-2 the brigade camped at Budd's Ferry, Md., constituting the First Brigade of Hooker's division, which had been placed thereas a corps of observation over the rebel blockading batteries extending several miles along the Virginia side of the Potomac.
The division embarked on steamers for Yorktown, April 5, 1862, the First Brigade being then commanded by Gen. Cuvier Grover, Hooker in command of the division, and Heintzelman of the corps (Third). The regiment performed the customary siege duty before Yorktown until the morning of May 4, when the rebel defenses were discovered to have been evacuated. Within an hour Hooker's division was pushing in pursuit, and at daylight the following morning impetuously attacked the rebel rear guard at Williamsburg. After a most obstinate and sanguinary struggle the Excelsior and New Jersey brigades were beaten back, when the entire Second Regiment was deployed as skirmishers to cover the line of two brigades, and maintained a savage bush fight for two hours, until relieved by the arrival of Kearney's division. The Second Regiment lost 18 men killed, 66 wounded, 23 missing.
On the last day of May, when Casey was overwhelmed at Fair Oaks, Hooker's division was at Poplar Hill, a few miles distant. The Second and Third Brigades took part in the second day's fight, and June 3 Grover's brigade also advanced to Fair Oaks. June 23 five companies of the Second, with some Massachusetts troops constituting the picket line, advanced as skirmishers, driving the rebel pickets a considerable distance towards Richmond. One man of the Second was killed and several
wounded in this little affair. Two days later the battle of Oak Grove was fought, when Hooker advanced over the same ground, crushed all opposition, and was only prevented from essaying the defenses of Richmond by McClellan's timidity. The Second's loss was about 70 men--the heaviest falling upon Company B, which had 22 men killed and wounded out of 42.
In the "change of base," Hooker's division abandoned the works and camps at Fair Oaks, June 28. At Savage's Station, the same day, the Second supported, with but slight loss, a battery posted to sweep the railroad towards Fair Oaks Station. It lost several men, wounded, at Glendale on the 29th, but its part of the line was not assailed at Malvern Hill on the 30th. In Hooker's movement to re-capture Malvern Hill, August 4 and 5, the Second had one man killed and several wounded by shell.
On the evacuation of the peninsula, Hooker's division marched to Yorktown, took boats to Alexandria, and from there by rail to reinforce Pope, arriving at Warrenton Junction on the night of August 25. On the morning of the 27th, Stonewall Jackson's raid on our communications was developed, and the division pushed for Manassas Junction, the Second throwing out skirmishers and leading the column. Ewell's division of Jackson's corps was encountered at Kettle Run, near Bristoe Station, and driven towards Manassas Junction on the jump.
On the forenoon of the 29th, Grover's brigade arrived upon the field near Groveton, where Jackson was at bay, and reported to General Sigel. Under peremptory orders to "carry the railroad embankment with the bayonet," it went forward into the woods, entirely unsupported, and charged the rebel position. The Second crashed through two lines in a headlong, hand-to-hand dash, but could not hold its ground. Out of 332 men, the regiment reported 16 killed, 87 wounded, 29 missing. The death-roll was actually 35, as finally established. At Chantilly, September 1, the Second covered the road, on Kearney's left, but was not brought into action. During the Antietam campaign, the division, now commanded by Sickles, layin the Washington defenses, and late in November joined the army at Falmouth. The Third Corps was now under Stoneman, Hooker commanding the centre grand division. The First Brigade, to which the Eleventh New Jersey had been added, was commanded by Gen. Joseph B. Carr. The Second's participation in the battle of Fredericksburg was confined to skirmishing, its position being two miles below the city, and it lost but 5 men wounded.
February 26, 1863, the regiment started for New Hampshire. It was given a rapturous reception in Manchester and Concord, and the men were freely furloughed to their homes. The regiment was reinforced by 94 men recruited for the Seventeenth Regiment, and on the25th of May set out to rejoin the army. The regiment was temporarily attached to Casey's division, Twenty-second Army Corps, for about two weeks, and then to Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Corps (Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth New Jersey, and One Hundred and Fifteenth Pennsylvania), commanded by Col. George C. Burling, Sixth New Jersey. At Gettysburg, July 2, the Second was, early in the action, detached from the brigade and reported to General Graham, First Brigade, Second Division. The regiment's desperate defense of the angle at Sherfy's peach orchard made that a historic point of the field. It took in 24 commissioned officers and 330 enlisted men. Three officers were killed and 18 wounded--4 mortally. Seventeen enlisted men were killed, I I9 wounded, and 36 missing. The killed and mortally wounded aggregated 56.
July 23, when the Third Corps forced a passage through Manassas Gap into the Shenandoah Valley, the Second supported the Excelsior Brigade, and the following day, deployed as skirmishers, it led the corps to Front Royal. July 26, at Warrenton, with the Twelfth New Hampshire, it was detached from the army and sent to Point Lookout, Md., to establish the great prison camp. The Fifth New Hampshire subsequently arrived, and the district (St. Mary's) was placed under command of Gen. Gilman Marston. The regiment was on duty here until April 8, 1864, when it went by boat to Yorktown to join Butler's "Army of the James," then assembling. Desertions by "bounty jumpers" becoming numerous, four were executed shortly after arrival at Yorktown.
The regiment was attached to the Second Brigade (Wistar's) Second Division, Eighteenth Corps' the brigade consisting of the Eleventh Connecticut, Second and Twelfth New Hampshire, and Forty-Eighth New York. In the advance from Bermuda Hundred towards Petersburg, on the 8th of May, the regiment lost 1 man killed and 6 wounded. In the "fog fight" of May 16, in front of Fort Darling, the regiment repulsed repeated assaults with frightful loss to the enemy, although its own loss was but 4 killed and 14 wounded. May 29 the Eighteenth Corps was dispatched by boat around to White House to reinforce the Army of the Potomac. It joined Grant at Cold Harbor, June 1, and the Second had several men wounded by shells on that day. The next day it took part in the bloody and unsuccessful assault of the rebel position, and the regiment lost 2 officers and 6 enlisted men killed, 3 officers and 66 men wounded, and 1 missing.
June 9 the original men, not re-enlisted, marched from the trenches on their way home, and were discharged at Concord, N. H., June 21. The original Second New Hampshire fitly crowned three years of glorious service at Cold Harbor. It was also the last great pitched battle in which the regiment actively participated. The regiment was at once detached from the brigade for temporary duty at Eighteenth Corps headquarters. From August 18 to September 1 it was in the trenches before Petersburg, losing more or less men almost every day. Then it reported to General Marston, commanding the defenses of the James from City Point to Fortress Monroe. It was efficiently employed in various minor raids until the 1st of October, when it rejoined the Eighteenth Corps, being assigned to the Third Brigade of its old division. October 27 it joined in a heavy reconnoissance near the Williamsburg road, and lost several men. In November the Twenty-fourth Corps was formed of the white troops of the Tenth and -Eighteenth Corps, the Second being assigned to the Third Brigade of the Third Division. This brigade, during March, 1865, was engaged in raids in various directions in Chesapeake waters, and established the base of supplies for Sheridan's raiders at the White House. From there it marched with Sheridan to rejoin the main army. In those early April days when Lee's army was annihilated, the Second was in position where it had only to await the evacuation of Richmond and then march in.
June 21 the Tenth, Twelfth, and Thirteenth New Hampshire were mustered out, and the recruits whose term of service did not expire before September 30, about 400, were transferred to the Second. The rebellion having collapsed, the Second was scattered throughout several Virginia counties on provost duty. Finally, on December 19, 1865, the regiment was assembled at City Point and there mustered out of the United States service. On the 21st it started for New Hampshire, where it received a greeting commensurate with its four years and six months of heroic service.
Any sketch of the Second Regiment would be incomplete without mention of Miss Harriet Patience Dame, the faithful army nurse. Miss Dame was born in North Barnstead, N. H., January 5, 1815. In 1856 she became a resident of Concord, and at the time the Second Regiment was being organized, had already commenced her good work of caring for the sick. When the regiment left for the front, the physicians in Concord could not spare her to accompany it; but a few days later she joined the command at Washington, and served with it, except when on duty at some field hospital, until it was mustered out in 1865,
tenderly ministering to the sick and wounded, full of courage and hope amidst the dead and dying, and always unwearied in caring for "her boys," regardless of her own health or comfort. The sincere respect and affection, not only of the men of the Second but of all New Hampshire regiments, is surely hers.
In 1867 Miss Dame was appointed to a clerkship in the Treasury Department, in Washington, which appointment she still holds.
The Second New Hampshire Volunteers was attached to and joined the Department of Washington, June 23, 1861; Hooker's brigade, Army of the Potomac, August 12, 1861; First Brigade, Hooker's division, Army of the Potomac, October 3' 1861; First Brigade, Second Division, Third Army Corps, March 16, 1862; Department of the East, March 3,1863; Casey's division, Twenty-second Army Corps, May 27, 1863; Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Army Corps, June 14, 1863; District of St. Mary's, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, July, 1863;Second Brigade, Second Division, Eighteenth Army Corps, April 23,1864; Eighteenth Army Corps (Corps Headquarters), June, 1864; First Brigade, First Division' Eighteenth Army Corps, August 13, 1864; Department of Virginia and North Carolina, September 1'1864; Third Brigade, First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps, October 7, 1864; Third Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, December 2, 1864; First Independent Brigade, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, July 10,1865;Department of Virginia, August, 1865. Sub-District of Essex, District Northeast Virginia,
E N G A G E M E N T S
Bull Run,Va....................................July 21, 1861
Siege of Yorktown, Va............................May 4, 1862
Williamsburg, Va.................................May 5, 1862
Skirmish at Fair Oaks, Va......................June 23, 1862
Peach Orchard, Va..............................June 25, 1862
Glendale, Va...................................June 30, 1862
Malvern Hill, Va........................July 1, Aug. 5, 1862
Kettle Run, Va.................................Aug. 27, 1862
Bull Run (2nd).................................Aug. 29, 1862
Chantilly, Va..................................Sept. 1, 1862
Fredericksburg, Va.............................Dec. 14, 1862
Getteysburg, Va.................................July 2, 1863
Wapping Heights, Va............................July 23, 1863
Swift Creek, Va..................................May 9, 1864
Drewry's Bluff, Va..............................May 16, 1864
Cold Harbor, Va...............................June 1-9, 1864
Port Walthall, Va..............................June 16, 1864
Petersburg, Va......................Aug. 18 to Sept. 1, 1864
Reconnoissance near Williamsburg road, Va......Oct. 27, 1864
Richmond, Va., occupation of....................Apr. 3, 1865
Inventory Number: CAN 141 / SOLD