1861 US ARMY REGULATIONS APPROPRIATED BY CONFEDERATE CAPT. JAMES SKINNER ODEN, A.Q.M. STUART’S HORSE ARTILLERY

1861 US ARMY REGULATIONS APPROPRIATED BY CONFEDERATE CAPT. JAMES SKINNER ODEN, A.Q.M. STUART’S HORSE ARTILLERY

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An interesting copy of the 1861 Revised Regulations of the U.S. Army appropriated by Confederate Captain James Skinner Oden, Quartermaster of Jeb Stuart’s Horse Artillery. This is a standard edition of the 1861 Regulations, bound in blue cloth with gilt blind-stamped title, printed by J.G.L. Brown, Philadelphia, and is well-worn, showing stains and some tears to the binding, which is loose on the spine, etc. Please see our photos. Although a US Army publication, these regulations include more than one hundred pages covering the handling and administration of the Quartermaster and Commissary Departments, which would have been an invaluable reference.

Oden signed the book several times, both as “A.Q.M.” and “A.C.S.” indicating he was handling both quartermaster and commissary duties. He also added an interesting epigraph on the flyleaf opposite the title page: “Transformed by the fluctuating fortunes of war,” referring possibly to the book’s transformation from a Union to a Confederate military handbook, or to his own transformation from an enlisted man to an officer, with very different responsibilities. Intriguingly, book also contains a good number of other Confederate soldiers’ names and units from the cavalry division, well over a dozen, rather randomly recorded, indicating he may have used it as something of an autograph album in his quarters, recording visitors, random thoughts and even bits of poetry, some by him and some by others.

Several of the men whose names and units appear in the book were from the 13th Virginia Cavalry, including James E. Heath, William F. Jordan, Geo. B. Chappell, Henry Birdsong, William W. Jordan and William D. Chappell. Heath, for one, made a rather long entry- a page long encomium titled “Peace.” We find also a three-line poem beginning, “Home! What art thou but a blessing…,” signed “A.E.S.” and also a woman’s address: “Miss Mollie Williams / Gloucester County / Va Jany 4th 1864,” perhaps a visitor to the battalion’s winter camp. Cross-referencing service records might provide more exact times for the whole, but we see a December 1864 date as well, indicating Oden likely kept it throughout the war.

Born in 1820, a farmer and surveyor before the war, Oden served first as a private in the 6th Virginia Cavalry, enlisting in Co. K on July 15, 1861, at Leesburg. Although being reported AWOL in August he must have been trusted, being detailed to serve as courier in November. He also seems to have been a tough customer. He is listed as captured at Port Royal, some sources saying on May 30, but that may be his release on parole. His CMSR file says he was captured April 15. An 1897 obituary says, “He was well known for his bravery,  having been captured after a desperate resistance, by the Union forces, and treated most shamefully, being chained with a logchain to a wagon and forced to follow his captors.” He may have been lucky to get off so easily. In his history of the Artillery Battalion, Trout mentions that Oden had been captured while in the 6th Virginia, “but not before shooting five, killing three, of his would-be captors.”

Oden seems to have been released not long after, likely on parole. He does not seem to have been exchanged and returned to duty until August 5, 1862. Trout says he subsequently served on the staffs of R.B. Garnett, Eppa Hunton and Micah Jenkins, but we are not sure how accurate that is. We are on firmer ground with his promotion to Captain and Assistant Quartermaster of Stuart’s Horse Artillery on June 16, 1863, with rank from June 5. This was in response to a personal request of Jeb Stuart on May 28, 1863, a copy of which is in Oden’s service file. His dates of appointment and rank bracket Brandy Station on June 9 but put him in that role in plenty of time for the Gettysburg Campaign. He seems to have remained in that post until the end of the war, with the battalion seeing action in the Fall 1863 campaigns, against Grant’s Overland Campaign in Spring 1864, and the siege of Petersburg until October 1864 when they moved with Rosser’s Cavalry Division to the Shenandoah, seeing action with Jubal Early. They reportedly lost their guns in the retreat from Cedar Creek. The battalion, or what was left of it returned to the ANV in early 1865. Only two are recorded as surrendering. Oden took the Oath of Allegiance on May 15, 1865, at Edwards Ferry, MD.

Oden returned to surveying in Virginia after the war and raised a family. Secondary sources regard his date of death as uncertain, but the obituary in the Sept. 17, 1897, Richmond Dispatch seems clearly to refer to him, identifying him as a veteran, age 78, and mentioning his capture. It notes also that for years he had been almost entirely blind.  [sr][ph:L]

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