CONFEDERATE TIN DRUM CANTEEN WITH PERIOD CAPTURE LABEL — CENTREVILLE, VA, MARCH 1862

CONFEDERATE TIN DRUM CANTEEN WITH PERIOD CAPTURE LABEL — CENTREVILLE, VA, MARCH 1862

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$4,950.00

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Item Code: 1273-141

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A Confederate tin drum canteen retaining an old manuscript capture label adhered to one face, identifying it as a Southern canteen recovered at Centreville, Virginia in March 1862 — within days of the Confederate evacuation of the Centreville–Manassas line.

FORM AND CONSTRUCTION

Classic drum-style ("tin drum") canteen of the type associated with Confederate manufacture and use. The body is formed of two slightly convex sheet-tin faces seamed to a narrow circumferential wall, giving the characteristic shallow drum profile. A short rolled tin/pewter spout is fitted at the top, with three sheet-metal sling guides soldered to the edge for the carrying strap. Approximately 6½ inches in diameter by about 2 inches deep. The surface carries the soft grey tone of aged tin with honest oxidation, spotting, denting, and fine scratches consistent with field use. Faint scratched script is visible on the metal.

PERIOD CAPTURE LABEL

One face retains a hand-inscribed paper label, now toned, stained, torn, and with losses but substantially legible. The text reads to the effect of: a "Rebel Canteen picked up at Centreville, Va., March 18th 1862, near the 'Grigsby House,' where the Rebel Gen. Johnson [Johnston] had his Headquarters during the winter," the writer noting that his party stopped at the same house and occupied the room used by the general, and that the canteen was obtained there. The closing lines, only partially legible, appear to record that the canteen is "scratched" with a name and unit designation ending "...Co. [—], 7th [—]."

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The reference is unmistakable. The Grigsby House at Centreville served as the winter headquarters of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding Confederate forces along the Centreville–Manassas line in 1861–62; the house was photographed by George N. Barnard in March 1862. Johnston withdrew his army southward in early-to-mid March 1862, abandoning the formidable Centreville works — where Federal troops soon found the celebrated "Quaker guns." Union forces moved into the deserted lines days later, U.S. engineers surveying the works on March 14, 1862. A canteen "picked up" near Johnston's former headquarters on March 18, 1862 fits this sequence exactly — a relic gathered by a Union soldier passing through the just-vacated Confederate camps. "Johnson" is the writer's period phonetic spelling of Johnston.

ATTRIBUTION NOTE

The Confederate identity and capture history rest on the attached period manuscript label. The canteen's drum form is consistent with Southern manufacture and use, and the label's internal details — the Grigsby House, Johnston's winter headquarters, the March 1862 date — are historically accurate and independently corroborated. As with any documented-by-association relic, the label is offered as the basis of attribution rather than as laboratory proof.

CONDITION

Sound and stable. Body intact with overall age oxidation, surface scratches, minor denting, and scattered rust spotting; spout and all three sling guides present. The paper label is fragile, toned, foxed/stained, and torn with edge and corner losses plus a small hole or two, but the core of the inscription remains readable. Displays well as a documented Centreville-capture relic.  [ss][ph:L]

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