This is a scarce early war tin drum canteen. Often associated with Confederate troops, there were many types and they were widely used by early war U.S. volunteers also. This bears a dead-real period inscription by Horace Poole of the 1^st Iowa, who fought at Wilson’s Creek and later served as an officer in the 21^st Iowa and served on the staffs of Generals, Warren, Banks and Thomas. He very nicely scratched in one face of the canteen, in shaded block letters, is “H. Poole / Co. I / 1^st Regt. I.S.V. / 1861.” Portions of Poole’s 1861 diary have been published or are cited in several books on the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and his account of the engagement was carried in his old hometown newspaper in Danvers, Mass., in August 1861.

The canteen follows the general pattern shown by O’Donnell, Canteens, pages 64 to 78. It is made of tinned iron, with the faces having a convex center panel soldered to a wide tinned iron rim that carries three brackets for a shoulder sling and tinned iron spout. The canteen shows a few dents and wear on the raised edges, but lots of its original tin and shows as mix of light and dark gray with a little thin brown here and there, and shows some of the striations created as the iron sheets were drawn up from the tin before stamping and shaping. The spout is in place and secure. Part of the stopper cord is still on one of the brackets. There is a leather sling on it with the ends overlapped under a bracket. The sling has age and is of the period. Whether the one he used in 1861 or not we can’t tell. Poole was a member of the G.A.R. after the war and proud of his service. Descendants sold his effects in the early 1990s, including a captured Second National Confederate flag with a note that he had loaned it for display at one point.

Horace Poole has a very good record. Born in Danvers, Mass., in 1836, he later attended Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire and, apparently anxious to see the world, traveled to China and back in 1857, before heading west to Iowa in 1858. He took a job there as a bookkeeper in a commercial firm, which must have aided his later performance as a staff officer. His first wartime experience, however, was as an enlisted man, when he obviously received this canteen.

He enrolled in the “Governor’s Greys,” on April 20, 1861, at age 24, immediately after Fort Sumter. Some records indicate April 23, but in any case, the company became part of the 1^st Iowa and Poole mustered in as a private in Company I on May 14. The regiment was organized at Keokuk for three months’ service and shortly before it was due to muster out was involved in the bloody fighting for control of Missouri at Wilson’s Creek, the first great battle of the war west of the Mississippi: “the regiment won the admiration of all by its splendid action in the face of overwhelming numbers, repeatedly repulsing the most determined attacks, performing feats of valor and materially contributing to the rout of the enemy at a vital moment. Though not a victory for the Union forces, it was not a signal defeat, the opposing army, five times as great being in no condition to pursue the retiring Union forces. ‘No troops, regular or volunteer, ever sustained their country's flag with more determined valor or fortitude,’ declared an officer who participated in that affair.  The regiment lost 21 killed and mortally wounded, 132 wounded and 2 missing.” (The Union Army.) Poole mustered out with the regiment on 8/21/61 at St. Louis.

Poole has substantial wartime experience after this as well. His military service with the 1^st Iowa and his business experience both probably played a role in getting a commission as 1^st Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 21^st Iowa on 9/2/62, a regiment that served the Vicksburg Campaign, southwest Louisiana, and gulf coast Texas. He seems to have been good at it: he was detached for staff duty as an Aide de Camp to Iowa General Fitzhugh Warren and then posted to the staff of Nathaniel Banks, transferring to the Adjutant General’s Department and being commissioned Captain and Assistant Adjutant General as of 2/29/64. He is reported as serving on the staff of General George Thomas as well, resigning only after the end of the war, on 6/9/65. After the war he returned to bookkeeping but soon after formed Poole, Gilliam & Co. in Dubuque, dealing in fancy groceries, teas, syrups, canned goods, fruits, tobacco and cigars. He later became Chief Deputy US Marshal for the Northern District of Iowa. He died in 1916.

This is a scarce, nicely identified, very early war volunteer’s canteen carried by a soldier who served in one of the great opening battles of the war.  [SR] [ph:m]

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