Civil War Relic Collection, Featuring Mallet Carved from Wood at Appomattox Courthouse, Horseshoe-Shaped Merrimac Relic, Plus 

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Jun 10, 2016 - Jun 11, 2016

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• Lot Description
  Civil War Relic Collection, Featuring Mallet Carved from Wood at Appomattox Courthouse, Horseshoe-Shaped Merrimac Relic, Plus 
  
  Lot of 15 relics and related documentation, featuring a 9.5 x 2.5 in. wooden mallet with a faded original tag that reads: 
   
  
  Handle made of young tree in McLean House (i.e. Surrender House) yard at Appomattox top made of Cedar tree on Appomattox battlefield scene of the last charge April 9, 1865 when Fitz Lee & Gordon chased Sheridan forces for two miles./ Given me by Mrs. Hunter
   
  A .75 in. brass ring with an original tag claiming to be made from a shell from the Sharpsburg battlefield. 
   
  Iron horseshoe-shaped Merrimac relic souvenir inscribed on the face TREDEGAR CO. MERRIMAC RICHMOND, VA., and CRANBERRY on the reverse. 27 x 31 mm., includes original display card. The following note indicates that this may have been a souvenir from a Confederate reunion: 
   
  Presented with the compliments of THE TREDEGAR COMPANY, RICHMOND, VA… This little horseshoe was made from a part of the armor of the Confederate Ironclad VIRGINIA. The armor plates… were made at the Tredegar Iron Works…
   
  ALS, 2 ANsS, and a button supposedly worn by Stonewall Jackson. One of the two cards reads: Button given me by Mrs. Stonewall Jackson Dec 3 1900. She writes "I cut it myself from a coat that Genl Jackson wore during the first of the war … the piece of coat was also cut from the old V.M.I. uniform worn by Genl Jackson at the beginning of the war."
   
  The second card reads: This button was cut from Stonewall Jackson’s sleeve when he received his mortal wound on the battle field of Chancellorsville. It was cut off by Dr. Wm Walls [Dr. J. William Walls (1837-1881)]. He gave it to his fiancée, who had desired a souvenir of Jackson. The engagement was broken – the lady never married. On her death the button came into the possession of her niece – Miss Laura Lee Davidson – who gave it to me April 4th 1909. In Mrs. Jackson’s Life of her husband Dr. McGuire speaks of Dr. Walls, as one of the surgeons present at the amputation of the General’s arm,. Bessie E. Johnston Gresham
   
  The button appears to be a standard pre-Civil War, US Army button of a type that Jackson could conceivably have worn on a pre-war military uniform, but other than its presence in this collection, Bessie Johnston Gresham apparently owned one or more buttons, but most likely gave them to the Maryland Historical Society or some other Institution. The ALS written to Bessie in 1898 pertains to the button and gifting it to her cousin at Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, TN. 
   
  Also included are 3 letters written to Bessie pertaining to the shreds of a flag, supposedly the last Confederate bunting to float over Fort Sumter which was owned and exhibited by Mrs. Robert Colman. In one letter, Emma Johnston wrote to Bessie: 
   
  My Dear Bessie,
  I scarcely know what to say about the old flag – all I know is that Robert Coleman sent it to me to exhibition at the Confederate Fair telling me that the man from whom he bought it Major (?) had captured it at Fort Sumter and that it was the last Confederate flag that had waved over the fort.
   
  Plus, an ALS on CSA Veteran letterhead from Augustine Smith to Bessie concerning Stonewall Jackson's door sill. The letter reads:   
   
  
  Baltimore, Md May 16 1898
  Mrs. Thos B. Gresham Balt. Md
  Madam
  With my compliments I send you Piece of the Door Sill to the room in which Stonewall Jackson was born.
  Respectfully Yours &c,
  Augustine J. Smith
   
  Also included: 2pp ALS from Louise Wigfall Wright, daughter of General Louis T. Wigfall, to Bessie about a piece of handkerchief, which was tied to General Wigfall's sword and used as a flag of truce at Fort Sumter; 5 documents concerning the provenance of a horseshoe from Colonel Turner Ashby’s horse with an old identification tag; and 2 AnsS from Bessie Johnston Gresham.
  
  For further information regarding the lot, refer to http://www.historybroker.com/collection/gresham/papers/2relics/relics.htm.
  
  Bessie E. Johnston Gresham Collection of Confederate Manuscripts, Photographs, & Relics
  
  Lots 89-115
  
  Bessie E. Johnston Gresham was born in Baltimore, MD in 1848 in a home sympathetic to the Southern cause. Union forces imprisoned one of her brothers for aiding the South, and her brother Elliott was a Confederate officer who lost a leg at the battle of Antietam. She became an ardent and unreconstructed Confederate, and, in 1887, she married Thomas Baxter Gresham, a Confederate veteran from Macon, GA. She was actively involved in the Baltimore chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and amassed a notable collection of Confederate manuscripts, photographs, and relics at the Gresham home at 815 Park Avenue in Baltimore. Most of her items were left to the Museum of the Confederacy, the Maryland Historical Society, and other institutions. This important collection of Johnston-Gresham family and Confederate-related material, was passed down through Bessie Johnston Gresham’s step-son, Leroy Gresham, before it was acquired by the consignor.
  
  The collection features over 50 CDVs accumulated by Bessie and Thomas Gresham, offered as Lots 89-100. Some are wardate, and others were apparently acquired in Baltimore soon after the war's end. Some CDVs include patriotic inscriptions and quotations written by Bessie on reverse, which showcase her deep feeling of love and devotion to the Southern Cause.
  
  In a June 1862 letter delivered through the Union blockade, Elliott Johnston, serving as aide-de-camp to CSA General Richard B. Garnett, mentioned collecting photos of CSA generals for his then 14-year-old sister Bessie.
  
  In a 1926 issue of Confederate Veteran magazine, a memorial essay described Bessie's girlhood during the war:
  
  "One of her brothers, who was on General Ewell’s staff, suffered the loss of a leg at the battle of Sharpsburg; her two other brothers were active Southern sympathizers and were under constant surveillance by Federal authorities for giving all possible aid to the Confederacy; her home was a center from which radiated help. “
  
  "Reared in this atmosphere of deep love for our ‘cause,’ she became an ardent and unreconstructed Confederate. "
  
  During her girlhood, Bessie was acquainted with many Southern generals and received from them letters, photographs, and autographs, as well as a number of gifts. 

  Condition

  All items are in good condition, the horseshoe has some minor rusting.
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