CONFEDERATE TENT STAKE RECOVERED FROM ABANDONED REBEL CAMP AT CENTREVILLE, VIRGINIA, MARCH 1862 - WITH PERIOD MANUSCRIPT AND TYPED PROVENANCE LABELS

CONFEDERATE TENT STAKE RECOVERED FROM ABANDONED REBEL CAMP AT CENTREVILLE, VIRGINIA, MARCH 1862 - WITH PERIOD MANUSCRIPT AND TYPED PROVENANCE LABELS

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$1,500.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1273-143

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A hand-hewn hardwood tent stake, approximately 12 1/2 inches in length, of the type used to secure shelter and wall tents in the field. Split and shaped from a single piece of close-grained hardwood (oak), it tapers to a flattened driving point at one end and is finished with a squared head at the other, where a cut notch/shoulder served to retain the tent guy-line. The surface carries a deep gray-brown weathered patina with pronounced checking and grain separation consistent with age and prolonged ground exposure.

The stake retains two old provenance labels affixed to the squared head, both carrying essentially identical wording. The earlier, in period brown ink in a 19th-century hand, reads: "A tent stake from the Rebel camp at Centreville, Va. obtained March 19th, 1862." A second, later typed label repeats the inscription: "A tent stake from the Rebel Camp Centreville, Va., obtained March 19th, 1862." The typed label is protected beneath a clear overlay.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Following the Confederate victory at First Manassas in July 1861, General Joseph E. Johnston's army established extensive winter quarters along the Centreville-Manassas line in Northern Virginia, fortifying the heights at Centreville and hutting tens of thousands of men through the winter of 1861-1862. In early March 1862, anticipating McClellan's advance, Johnston evacuated the line and withdrew south behind the Rappahannock, abandoning the camps, works, and a quantity of stores. Federal troops occupied the deserted positions within days -- famously uncovering the "Quaker guns," logs mounted to imitate artillery -- and soldiers, officers, and civilian visitors carried off relics from the abandoned Rebel camps. A stake "obtained March 19th, 1862" falls squarely within this brief window, when the recently vacated Confederate encampment at Centreville was being picked over by the occupying Union army.

CONDITION

Sound and stable, with the heavy patina, surface checking, and edge wear expected of a wooden field artifact of this age. Both labels are toned, chipped at the edges, and show minor losses but remain legible; the manuscript label is the more worn of the two. As with all relics of this class, the attribution rests on the early collector's labels rather than independent documentation -- but the agreement of the two labels and the early, specific date are wholly consistent with the documented Confederate evacuation of Centreville and the Union occupation that followed in March 1862.   [ss][ph:L]

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