A classic Confederate wood drum canteen that rode with John Hunt Morgan. We handled this canteen once years ago and are proud to offer it again. It came to us identified to a soldier named L. Waggoner in the “13^th Kentucky.” There was no 13^th KY Infantry, but there was certainly a 13^th Kentucky Cavalry who enjoyed quite a number of different designations: 10^th Infantry; 10^th Mounted Rifles; 10^th Cavalry Battalion; 11^th Mounted Rifles; 11^th Mounted Infantry; and, lastly “Caudill’s Army.” There is only one candidate: L. P. Waggoner, Co. D, 13^th KY Cavalry (and all of its various other identities.) He does not show up in the KY Adjutant General’s rosters or the recent regimental history, but we do find him on two clothing receipt rolls, dated June 29 and September 7, 1864.

The regiment rode with John Hunt Morgan and has an interesting history, containing men from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and commanded by Benjamin Caudill, a Baptist preacher who originally commanded a company in the 5^th Kentucky Mounted Infantry. Caudill was apparently charismatic and recruited enough men in Fall 1862 and early 1863 to form a regiment, organized at Abingdon, Va., and initially designated the 10^th KY Mounted Rifles.

The regiment was assigned to the Department of East Tennessee and later to the combined Department of Western Virginia and East Tennessee, seeing service in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Shenandoah. They were quite active, fighting at Leatherwood, Poor Fork, Wallins Creek, Mill Cliff, Whitesburg, Camp Cumberland, Blue Springs, Henderson’s Mill, Rheatown, Pugh’s Mill, Blountville, Everett’s Raid, Jonesville, Chavies, Cove Mountain, Colley Creek, Morgan’s Raid, Mount Sterling, Lexington, Cynthiana, Blue Springs, Laurel Gap, Saltville, Crane’s Nest, and Marion (near Abingdon, where they had organized.) In that engagement, as part of Giltner’s Brigade under Breckinridge, they helped fight Stoneman to a standstill. The regiment finally surrendered at Louisa, KY, 4/27/65.

The canteen is the classic Confederate wood drum style with wood spout, turned faces, and staves secured with thin iron bands, which in turn have thin brackets that keep them from separating and act as sling loops. One of these is missing, but the canteen is stable and even still retains its loosely woven sling that fastens with a single bone button. Waggoner carved his name rather crudely, but very legibly as “L. Waggoner” on one face of the canteen, arcing up under a previous owner’s lightly carved, “WT,” with what looks like an “H,” under the “W.” On the other side there is what seems to be a lightly carved “WTM,” with some chipping out of the “M.” Waggoner’s name is definitely more prominent and meant to overshadow the initials. We find a “William T. Murphy” in the 13^th as well, but Waggoner may have “obtained” it (for lack of a better word) from someone with those initials in a different outfit. In any case, to judge from his carving, he did not intend to take any chances in maintaining ownership once he got it.

This is a classic Confederate canteen with a dead-real, very “folky” soldier’s name carved in it, from a really interesting unit.  [sr]

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