behind AotW

I’ve been through thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of the cards which make up the Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) for my guys. I’ve never seen a card like this one (transcription below).

It is from the CMSR jacket for Benjamin Franklin Taylor. He rose from Private to Colonel of the 2nd Maryland Infantry, USA from 1861 to 1865. The original CMSRs are at the National Archives. I got this digital copy online from fold3.

There are two possibilities here.

One: some wag (or the subject himself) entered this phony information in the original Regimental Descriptive Book for the 2nd Maryland, and the War Department clerk who created this card simply wrote down what he saw.

Two: the War Department clerk created the fictions himself.

I have not found a digital copy of 2nd Maryland’s Regimental Descriptive Book from the Maryland Archives, the National Archives, or fold3, so I can’t yet verify which is the case. I would not be surprised to learn it has not been digitized – the wisdom is that the fragile paper Descriptive Books have been literally transcribed on cards in the CMSRs, so no one really needs to see them.

Given that at least some of the the information on the card is correct, it’s plausible that this card is a true transcription from the Descriptive Book record. But it seems unlikely that the maintainers of the Descriptive Book – the regimental Adjutants (and there were at least 4 during the war) – would have let such obviously bad information stand.

But it’s equally hard for me to imagine the War Department clerk would insert green skin and blue hair, given the seriousness of his task. And no, screwer is not a legitimate 19th Century occupation. Could it have been momentary giddiness? Boredom? It’s also hard to believe a supervisory clerk didn’t catch it.

In either case, this is one heck of a CMSR card!

Drury Webb, the name at the bottom of the card, was Drury Edgar Webb (1864-1934) from Knox County, TN. According to the Official Register of the United States (for 1891, 1895, 1915) he was a clerk in the Record and Pension Division, US War Department in Washington, DC by 1891. He was in the Office of Auditor of the Post Office by 1895 and to at least 1915, and still a clerk in Government service in Washington at the US Census of 1920, then age 55.

Also, there were 13 Webbs from the Knoxville area in the 2nd (East) Tennessee Infantry (US) during the Civil War, one of them Samuel Webb (1833-1881), Drury’s father; in case you were wondering in which direction his sympathies may have leaned.

Incidentally, a collection of Drury’s c. 1910 photographs of Knoxville are in the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Knoxville County, TN Public Library [finding aid]

______________

Transcription

T | 2 | Md.
Benj. F. Taylor
Co. B., 2 Reg’t Maryland Inf.

Appears on
Regimental Descriptive Book
of the regiment named above.

Description.

Age …. years; height …. feet …. inches.
Complexion green
Eyes grey ; hair blue
Where born On the Ocean, North pole
Occupation screwer

Enlistment
When Sept. 30, 186…
Where Baltimore
By Whom Capt. Brunner; term 3 y’rs.
Remarks …

Drury Webb
Copyist.

________________

National Archives sources:

The Regimental Descriptive Book: NARA Record Group 94: Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Regimental and Company Books of Civil War Volunteer Union Organizations, 1861–1867 (“Regimental Record Books”), Regimental and Company Books of the 2nd Maryland Infantry Regiment (NAID: 6340761) [finding aid].

CMSRs: NARA Record Group 94: Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the American Civil War, 1890–1912 (“Civil War CMSRs”), [Maryland] Taylor, Benjamin F – Age 23, Year: 1863 – Second Infantry, Af-Wi (NAID: 39425927) [finding aid]

Camp scene taken Alex. Va. 1865; Field, Staff & Line 2nd Md. A photograph among the Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Maryland, posted to flickr; original from the Maryland Historical Society.

Seated: 2nd Lt. Charles H. Boone (Co. A), Quartermaster Thomas H. Marshall, Capt. Frederick W. Heck (Co. K), Col. Benjamin Franklin Taylor, Lt. Col. James H. Wilson, Adjutant John Schwab, Surgeon James H. McCullough;
Standing: Capt. John M. Long (Co. G), Capt. Conrad Boettger (Co. H), Capt. Henry L.E. Premier (Co. D), Capt. James D. Loades (Co. C), Capt. John Sweeney (Co. B), Capt. Henry Sivel (Co. I), Lt. William Thomas (Co. D), Capt. George Hopf (Co. E).

Officers of Company A of the Second Vermont Volunteers; taken at Gaines’ House, near Mechanicsville, Virginia.

This small, faded photograph by George H. Houghton is online from the Bennington Museum; probably from the collection of the Vermont Historical Society. Based on the service/commissioning dates of these officers, it was taken between 21 May and 17 July 1862. The regiment was in camp at Gaines’ Mill between 22 and 24 May, so that’s a likely time.

Standing:
(1) Eugene Otis Cole (enl Sgt, CoA, 2nd Vermont Inf 7 May 1861, comm 2LT 21 May 1862; 1LT 17 Oct 1862, M.O. 29 June 1864; comm. Major 5th Vermont Inf 30 Jan 1865, Lt Colonel 9 June 1865, M.O. 29 June 1865)
(2) Charles Miller Bliss (Yale ’52; enl Sgt, CoA, 2nd Vermont Inf 7 May 1861, comm 2LT CoB 2 Sept 1861, disch 4 Oct 1862)
(3) William H. Cady (comm 2LT CoA, 2nd Vermont Inf 16 May 1861, 1LT 22 Jan 1862; Capt 21 May 1862, wnd 5 May 1864, M.O. 29 June 1864)
(4) William B. Robinson (enl Sgt CoG 1st Vermont Inf 2 May 1861, M.O. 15 Aug 1861; enl Sgt CoH 5th Vermont Inf 25 Aug 1861, comm 2LT CoK 19 April 1862, 1LT CoD 22 Oct 1862, Capt CoH 4 Dec 1862, disch wds 8 Aug 1864)
(5) Edward W Appleton (enl 1Sgt, CoA, 2nd Vermont Inf 7 May 1861, comm 2LT 14 Sept 1861; 1LT 25 Jan 1862, disch disability 25 Sept 1862)
(6) Newton Stone (comm 1LT, CoA, 2nd Vermont Inf 16 May 1861, Capt 22 Jan 1862, Major 8 Jan 1863, Lt Colonel 9 Feb 1863, Colonel 2 Apr 1864, KIA Wilderness 5 May 1864)

Seated:
(7) unidentified
(8) unidentified
(9) Abel K. Parsons (comm 1LT, CoA, 4th Vermont Inf 27 Aug 1861, detailed ADC to BGen Brooks 1 May 1862, KIA Cold Harbor 3 June 1864)
(10) James Hicks Walbridge (comm Capt, CoA, 2nd Vermont Inf 16 May 1861, Major 21 May 1862, Lt Colonel 8 Jan 1863, Colonel 9 Feb 1863, resigned 1 April 1864)
(11) Guilford Ladd (comm Adjutant 2nd Vermont Inf 11 June 1861, resigned 17 July 1862)

The 2nd Vermont Infantry, part of the Vermont Brigade (2nd of the 2nd Division, Sixth Army Corps), was in action at Crampton’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September and arrived on the battlefield of Antietam about mid-day on 17 September, and was in reserve that afternoon and “on the skirmish line” the next day.

Most or all of the men in that photograph were probably in Maryland that September, but so far I only have specific evidence for two of them: Lieutenant Parsons (4th Vermont) served on the Brigade staff as aide to General W.T.H. Brooks, and Major Walbridge commanded the 2nd Vermont as senior officer present.

Antietam veteran Private John Savin Appleton was a student at the Free Military School for Applicants for Command of Colored Troops at 1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA in the summer of 1864, and afterward passed an examination by a board of officers in Washington, DC and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 31st United States Colored Troops.

The school was established in December 1863 to help alleviate a shortage of qualified officers for newly organizing USCT regiments and was run by Colonel John H Taggart, late of the 12th Pennsylvania Reserves. Lieutenant Appleton was one of more than one thousand successful graduates before the school closed at the end of 1864.

For much more about the history of the school, sponsored by the Philadelphia Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, see Frederick M Binder’s Philadelphia’s Free Military School from the journal Pennsylvania History (October 1950) [Article PDF], online from the Pennsylvania State University.

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The image at the top is from the frontpiece of the 2nd edition of a pamphlet produced by the school as a recruiting tool; a digital copy is online from the Internet Archive.

Appleton’s 1864 orders are from his Compiled Service Records, online from fold3.

You should see what 1210 Chestnut Street looks like today [Dec 2022].

Thanks to Christy Centeno for sending along this clipping about Private Leander Arendt from the Cumberland, MD Civilian & Telegraph of 2 October 1862; she found it online in the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America collection.

This James F Gibson photograph of June 1862 is from the Library of Congress. Pictured left to right are: Lt. Henry Clay Meinell, Captain Horatio Gates Gibson, Lt. Edmund Pendleton, and Lt. William Duncan Fuller. The first three were together at Antietam in September that year.

Taken in New Orleans in 1867, this photograph was sold by J. Mountain Antiques of Ashburnham, MA. Pictured, left to right, are 1st Lt. Ballard S. Humphrey, Sgt. John B. Charlton (guidon, Battery K), Capt. William Montrose Graham, 2nd Lt. Charles King (son of Gen. Rufus King), 1st Lt. John J. Driscoll.

At Antietam, Humphrey was First Sergeant of Battery I and Graham was Captain of Battery K.

This fascinating map is found in the 1895 Annual Report to stockholders of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, Horace John Hayden, Second Vice President. It’s online as a PDF from Terry Link on his Canada Southern Railway (once part of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s 19th Century railroad empire) website.

Horace Hayden was two years out of Harvard and First Lieutenant of Battery L, 3rd United States Artillery at Antietam in 1862, but was rubbing shoulders with robber barons twenty years later.

Credited to Matthew Brady, this 1864 photograph is in the collection of the Library of Congress, and is labeled

Petersburg, Va., vicinity. Maj. Thomas T. Eckert (seated, left) and others of U.S. Military Telegraph Corps

Major Thomas Thompson Eckert was General McClellan’s chief of telegraphic operations on the Peninsula and Maryland Campaigns of 1862, later Chief of the Military Telegraph Office at the War Department and Assistant Secretary of War, and, much later, President then Chairman of the Western Union Telegraph Company, to 1910.

At left here is brevet Lieutenant Colonel and AAG Robert Hampton Ramsey (1838-1876), of General George Thomas’ staff, previously of the 45th Pennsylvania Militia, and on the right a very tired-looking Captain Edward Henry Leib, former First Defender from Pottsville, PA and brevet Major, 5th United States Cavalry.

This is late 1865 and Leib is probably still recovering from a gunshot through his body received at Five Forks, VA on 1 April. Captain Leib was at Antietam in September 1862 and in more than 100 other actions during the war.

His Army career ended in disgrace in 1877, however, due to drinking and conduct unbecoming, related to a “severe and depressing domestic affliction” – unpleasant assertions about his wife and “an affair of honor” with his commanding officer.

Frohne’s Historic Military sold this fine carte-de-visite photograph in about 2010; I found it on ancestry.com.