IDENTIFIED 8th NYHA CIVIL WAR SOLDIER’S CANTEEN: HE SAW THE ELEPHANT

$450.00 SOLD

Quantity Available: None

Item Code: 480-179

This identified canteen come from a respected central New York collection that we have the pleasure of offering. This is a New York depot pattern with no cover, but with a full strap and stopper held by a jack chain, which is characteristic of the New York Depot. The tin coating of the body has largely oxidized to gray, but all brackets are in place and the strap is full length and solid. The veteran’s family painted his name, “H.H. CURTISS” on the body along with the date 1861, which was pretty typical of veterans’ families, who might not know the exact the exact date their father or grandfather went into service and used 1861 or 1861-65 as shorthand for “Civil War.” In this case, Harvey Horace Curtiss served about a year and a half, enlisting 1/11/64 at age 18 in Warsaw, NY, and mustering in the same day as a private in Co. M of the 8th NY Heavy Artillery.

Curtiss was a resident of Geneseo, about 18 miles away. His decision to enlist, and in that unit at that location, may have been influenced by his older brother Homer G. Curtiss, who was then living in Warsaw and had enlisted there in Company M of the 8th less than two weeks earlier. Harvey made corporal 1/1/65 and at war’s end he transferred out of that unit on 6/5/65 into Co. G of the 10th NY Infantry, with whom he mustered out on 6/30/65. NY abstracts of the muster rolls indicate he was present with the company throughout his service, with the exception of a hospital stay in October.

Joining the 8th NY Heavy Artillery might have seemed like a good idea in January 1864. Originally organized as the 129th NY Infantry in August 1862, it was redesignated as heavy artillery and posted to Baltimore and Harpers Ferry. Companies L and M were recruited in December 1863 and January 1864 to give it the requisite 12 companies for a heavy artillery regiment. The potential for avoiding the draft, a bounty for enlistment, and garrison duty in one of those spots or in the fortifications around Washington may have been a lure. That all changed in May 1864 when Grant ordered all available troops into the field and the 8th Heavy Artillery was assigned to the Second Army Corps as infantry in his campaign against Richmond. They found themselves in the fighting at Spottsylvania and the North Anna, where they were lightly engaged, and then were hit hard starting at Cold Harbor on June 3, where they suffered some 123 killed and 311 wounded, Petersburg on June 16 and June 22, when they lost at least another 39 dead and 172 wounded, as well as smaller almost daily losses, at Reams Station in August, Hatchers Run, and a number of other engagements. By the end of the war and just one year of active service, they had lost 19 officers and 342 enlistedmen in killed and mortally wounded alone. Homer Curtiss went west after the war. Harvey returned to Geneseo, eventually opened a restaurant there, and died not far away in Batavia, NY, in 1918. He probably had had enough adventure.

This is a nicely identified canteen carried by a soldier who saw heavy action in Grant’s final campaign.  [sr]

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