This is the classic Civil War Confederate wood canteen made with simple lathe-turned front and back faces under curved and grooved staves secured with iron bands. Often referred to generally as the Gardner pattern, they were simple and well within the abilities of coopers and other woodworkers, and were produced throughout the south, so much so that even at the time were regarded as the quintessential Confederate canteen, becoming valued relics and war trophies, as this one was.

The canteen is in very good condition, with nice color and just some expected scratches and wear spots from field use. The bands are typical, narrow thin iron and have a black and brown pitted surface, but are solid. The brackets for the shoulder sling are likewise intact. The throat of the canteen is missing, as most are, and its stave has a crack on either side of the hole, but is stable. One face of the canteen has a diagonal hairline crack, but it does not show any separation. The other face has some rubbing at the center indicating it may have been the side worn against the body by the Confederate soldier who carried it. Along the top edge a Union captor has carved in a nicely folky “PENNA Res CORPS.”

The Pennsylvania Reserve Corps resulted from the enthusiastic response by the state to Lincoln’s call for troops in 1861, exceeding the state’s quota of 14 regiments. Fifteen additional regiments were eventually formed and numbered sequentially from 1 to 15 as PA Reserves, though also receiving numbers within the line of Pennsylvania Volunteers and sometimes additional designations yet within a branch of service, much to the confusion of some students and researchers. The thirteen infantry regiments were organized in three brigades in a division commanded at different points by Generals McCall, Seymour, Reynolds, Meade, Sickel, Crawford, and McAndless, serving for the most part in the First and Fifth Corps, with brief stints in the 3^rd Corps Army of Virginia for the Second Bull Run Campaign and the 22^nd Corps in Washington from Dec. 1862 to June 1863. They saw action in the Peninsula Campaign, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg (where they broke through Confederate lines,) Gettysburg (where two of the brigades fought near Little Round Top,) and the opening of Grant’s 1864 offensive in the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania. The regiments were mustered out after three years’ service in June 1864, but numbers of veterans re-enlisted, forming the core of the 190^th and 191^st PA Volunteers.

This has a lot of eye-appeal and shows a great deal of unit pride in the captor’s labelling it as a trophy from one of the division’s battles.  [sr][ph:m]

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