behind AotW

Behold a receipt for an English Saddle & Equipments purchased by Sharpsburg veteran Major, soon to be Lieutenant Colonel Henry A Rogers of the 13th North Carolina Infantry in Richmond, VA in July 1863. It was $125.

For reference, due to wartime shortages and inflation, bacon cost $1.25/pound and flour was $28/barrel in Richmond, four times their pre-war prices. And his pay was $130/month for May and June 1863, while still a Captain. It would rise to $150/month as a Major and $170 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Rogers’ saddle was probably made in the Ordnance Harness Shops at Clarksville, VA, but may instead have literally been English-made and came through the blockade from England.

The W.S. Downer seen on the receipt is Major William S Downer, Superintendent of Armories at the Richmond Arsenal, the organization responsible, among other things, for issuing horse equipment of all kinds. M S K = Military Storekeeper. Downer, by the way, had been a clerk at the US Army’s arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA in 1860.

Here’s Henry Rogers at about the time of his purchase, in a portrait of unknown provenance from the Chancellorsville Vistor Center.

The receipt above is among Rogers’ Compiled Service Records, now in the National Archives. I got my copy from fold3, a subscription service.

This from the Terrell, Texas Register by way of the of Fairfield Recorder of 28 August 1896. I’ve not found who “old Hannah” was, but Joe Savage was a Sharpsburg veteran, a Private in the 13th Alabama Infantry. He lost his lower leg and foot to amputation two weeks after he was wounded at Jones’ Farm near Petersburg, VA on 30 September 1864.

I remember seeing stories like this before – but can’t place them now. Please comment if you know of others. The Fairfield Recorder is online through the Portal to Texas History from the University of North Texas Libraries.

Here are some excellent photographs of Henry Roger Jones very kindly sent me by his great-great-granddaughter Deborah Burks.

Henry was a 23 year old law student in Illinois in early 1861, but returned to his native state and enrolled as First Sergeant of Company C, 8th Connecticut Infantry in September. Here he is, on the right, in a picture taken with another soldier, not yet identified, about that time:

He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant the next summer and was seriously wounded in combat at Antietam on 17 September 1862 and briefly a prisoner of war there. Disabled for further field service, he was discharged in January 1863 and enrolled in the Veteran Reserve Corps in July 1864. That’s him in VRC uniform in these next two images:

He continued as a First Lieutenant in Regular Army service after the war; with the 43rd US Infantry (VRC) then with the First US Infantry after the two regiments were merged in 1869. Here he is in post-war service:

He retired in 1878 and was promoted to Captain on the retired list in 1904.

Deborah also transcribed the backs of each of these photographs; from the top down, 1 – 4:.

(1) printed: “Cartes de Visite by Davis, 245 Main Street, Hartford Conn.”
(2) printed: “J. T. Upson, Buffalo, NY”
(3) handwritten: “Henry R. Jones, Adjt, 11th Inv. Corps, Rock Island, Ill. Dec. 26 ’63. [added: Capt 20th VRC];” printed: “G. A. Douglass & Co. (Late Powelson’s) 230 Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y.”
(4) handwritten: “Henry R. Jones, Lieut. USA.;” printed: “R. S. De Lamater, Photographer, No. 258 Main Street, 3 Doors above Post Office [Hartford, CT].”