Saturday Morning, October 25, 2025
The Civil War collection we are presently selling arrived to us from a family whose father collected for years. He has passed so the items are now returning to market. We have already recognized items he had purchased here, one in particular from Bud Ely's auction in 1990. Like many of you, collecting consumed his life. A sweet life indeed.
The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone...
Scalpel, demanded the surgeon. He studied the injury then cut the flesh around the limb. Catlin, he barked. He dug deep into the ligaments and muscle, cutting a clean line to the bone. Saw, he yelled. His loudness not from anger, but from frustration.
Civil War Union tintype - Veterans Reserve Corps (initially Invalid Corps).
A unit of disabled and infirmed soldiers who could perform light duties. Members were identified by their unique light blue uniforms.
Hundreds of wounded men lay dying around him. The blade spit chips, the damaged limb falling away. The nurse picked up the piece, tossing it out beyond the tent flap. After a quick dressing, the surgeon moved on.
Leather belt loop fuze box.
Embossed Navy Yard, N.Y., 1865.
Three out of four surgeries in the Civil War were amputations. Time mattered. That gossamer line between life and death. No time to say hello goodbye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.
Out on a Limb
The pile grew outside, daily. A strange assortment sporting a pungent odor. A shoe, with foot intact, sleeves with hands protruding, pants revealing partial legs. But never abdominal. Those injuries guaranteed death. Surgeons labored from first light far into the night. Rest a privilege. Kerosene lamps cast an eerie glow across the operating tables, shadows flickering like spirits departing.
Daguerreotype - My Uncle - Dr. John Thompson Walton. Bless those who mark these antiquities.
Dr. Walton graduated University of Pennsylvania with a Medical degree in 1856. He served within the Pennsylvania 103rd & 78th Infantry during the war. In April, 1864, he was captured and served time in Andersonville Prison. Following the war, he practiced medicine in Philadelphia.
Civil War field hospitals. Conditions so horrid, participants would never forget, filling sleepless nights for years. Here, a surgeon's skill matched a soldier's resolve. Anesthesia was primitive, hygiene unknown, infection the forever threat. A normal amputation required ten minutes. In the Union Army there were 60,000 of them. The first step in attempting to save a life. A .58 calber lead musket bullet wreaked tremendous damage. Then there were the cannons.
Civil War glass flask, overlayed with leather & nickel silver base, 7 ¼" H.
Engraved - Capt. D. Hart, 7th N. J. Inf [antry].
Captain Hart mustered September 5, 1862
Rebel Yell
The loss of life during America's Civil War was tremendous. At the start, no one foresaw the magnitude. In the first battle, Bull Run, the wakeup call was brutal. Curious citizens from Washington, D.C. attended to watch. Expecting what? It was a rout against the Union. Hundreds lay injured, dead. Observers were horrified, turning their backs and scurrying back to the city. A foreshadow of the coming years.
Carte-de-Visite - The 51st Pennsylvania Volunteers flag used in the Battle for Burnside Bridge, Antietam, September 17, 1862. Union troops stormed across the bridge in a direct firing line from the Confederates.
Despite this untenable plan, the bridge was won.
In the entire Civil War, an estimated 620,000 were killed, 400,000 captured, 476,000 missing. And this does not include all Confederate losses. Their records irretrievable. As an example, during Gettyburg's Pickett's Charge, Confederate Company A of the 11th Mississippi, a unit of college boys from Ole Miss (nicknamed University Greys), the casualties were 100%. Amid this carnage, medical teams were assembled, female nurses were trained, their first step into a profession they would grow to dominate. Another outcome was the Surgeon General, a title born in the aftermath.
Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, 1904. Two volume set for the Ceremonies at the Dedication of the Monuments erected by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19,1863.
Ships of Wood, Men of Steel
We sing of the heroes, legendize the brave, but the post war bloom for the injured fades. The medical term invalid was adopted, its origin defined as one no longer a valid member in society.
Batty Brothers Co. Peace brass powder horn flask,
Springfield, Mass, 1858, with inspector's marks, 9 ¾" L.
These flasks were included with the purchase of Colt's Dragoon revolver.
In the nineteen century, a man's value was determined by his ability to provide for his family, his community. It was a physical world, especially on farms. Lack of mobility from lost arms and legs reduced dignity to dirt. Our ancestors were proud people, a populace aware and accepting of personal responsibility. A trait long abandoned in a socialist utopia. Prosthetics were primitive, many home made, and a financial net minimal. The Federal pension system was adopted, but like most good deeds, the application was ponderous, filled with rules and regulations. Thousands of soldiers fell into poverty and simply slipped beneath the surface. Heroes with a No Traces. War unforgiving. Prior. During. After. Sacrifices made, cushioned by twenty-first century medicine, and a supportive human infrastructure have made progress. But the only permanent solution to war itself? Elusive as a dove sleeping in the sand.
Doors open at 8 AM. Auction starts at 9 AM. PA AU 1265L [bb]