This is the quintessential Yankee Civil War canteen from the NY Depot, characterized by the smooth-sided body and a bracket pierced for a chain to retain the stopper. The stopper and chain are long gone, but brownish-gray wool cover is all there, with no moth damage, good seams, and just scattered dirt and water stains from actual field use. The original sling is also present, full length and intact with no breaks, just the usual rust marks at the edges of the brackets. This absolutely as you would like to find one in a soldier’s estate, though that does not happen much anymore.

Sewn to one side of the canteen cover is a dead-real First Division Sixth Army corps badge. Formed in May 1862, the corps adopted the Greek Cross as its symbol with introduction of corps badges by Hooker in March 1863, using the standard color scheme of red, white, and blue for its divisions, along with green for a short-lived fourth division. The corps, or elements of it, saw action at Gaines Mill, the Seven Days, and South Mountain. At Antietam and Fredericksburg it was lightly engaged. During the Chancellorsville campaign it stormed Maryes Heights at Fredericksburg and fought at Salem Church. At Gettysburg elements of the Corps were sent to plug gaps and saw action at different points in the line. In March 1864 the divisions were consolidated into two and the third division reconstituted from the transferred third division of the Third Corps. In Grant’s Overland Campaign it was heavily engaged at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. It checked Early at Monocacy and then joined the Army of the Shenandoah to fight in the Valley Campaign of 1864, fighting at Winchester, Fishers Hill, and Cedar Creek. It returned to the Army of the Potomac in late 1864 at Petersburg, took part in the final assault on that city and the pursuit of Lee, seeing its last substantial action at Sailor’s Creek, where it was responsible for breaking the Confederate line. It was disbanded in late June 1865.

The red cloth badge was attached with some crude stitches, obviously by a soldier and not a tailor, and conforms to the canteen in condition and age, having been there forever. The badge is arranged as a St. Andrew’s Cross or “X,” which became the more common and specified arrangement in Spring 1864, though not universal.  Red, of course, indicates the First Division and was worn by the corps artillery brigade as well. This is a rarely offered chance to acquire a real Civil War corps badge as applied by a soldier to express his unit pride. Hanging by his side, it would have shown his division and corps to anyone he passed, even if they could not see the badge on his hat. When large numbers of Confederate fugitives from their attack at Sailors Creek were rounded up by Union cavalry, one of the veterans remarked, “you may have gathered up the apples, but the Sixth Corps shook the tree for you!”  [sr]

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