Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
1861-1866, 32 items (all but two war date).
The roster of Civil War engagements involving the 1st Ohio Cavalry reads like a novel, including some of the great battles of the western theatre. From their arrival in Kentucky in December 1861, the Regiment took part in dozens of skirmishes and major battles, their young Quarter Master Sergeant Samuel Putnam following in the footsteps of his military ancestors, including the Revolutionary War hero Israel Putnam.
Although the 1st Ohio had been active since their arrival in Kentucky in December 1861, the pace of activity picked up in the spring of 1862. From very early in their time in the service, the regiment learned the brutality involved in civil war, facing both regular and irregular Confederate forces waging an all out war. In February 1862, for example, he described an episode near Lebanon, Ky., where Confederate forces had raided, capturing some Union soldiers stringing a telegraph line, stealing horses and slaves. The rebels took back with them twenty four prisoners, four of them out telegraph men… burned up the meeting house, two of their baggage wagons, all of their rations, clothes, blankets, &c. before setting fire to the buildings. They made the four telegraph boys unpack everything the whole telegraph troup had, carpet sack & all, and whatever they could use they took, & told the prisoners to tae all of the clothes they could with them as they would need them, the balance they burned with the building and fastened up a Union man in the burning house & tried to burn him up, but he got out...
On April 12, Putnam wrote of their march to Pittsburg Landing and the Battle of Shiloh: we had not been in camp but a few minutes until we received orders to hurry on as fast as possible (we could hear the report of the cannons plain for all we was thirty eight miles away from the fight). Our men wanted to start immediately but we rested our horses & teams until three o'clock the next morning when the whole of our regiment pressed on… We are now awaiting transportation to take us up to the battle field where our men are & we are promised barges, a boat to tow us up tomorrow morning. I reckon they will be glad to see us, as they have been sleeping in the rain for a week & nothing but their blankets over them…. I hear that the Ohio 17th Regt was very badly cut up, they have two hundred & eighteen missing...
The 1st Ohio served in the siege and Battle of Corinth, which Putnam found tediously slow, and when they relocated to Iuka, the cost of the war began to sink in: We have citizens come into our camp nearly every day, he wrote, imploring us to go out with them & aid them to get there wines & children within our lines, as they say the rebel sympathizers report them to the rebel soldiers as conscripts. Men take there property, plunder there houses with impunity and offer them no compensation for what they take from them except tell them that they will have to be rebel soldiers within a week or die… wouldn't you like to live in a country where every neighbor is suspicious or afraid of each other?
That summer, the regiment moved into Tennessee and took part in the pursuit of Braxton Bragg. Impatient and confident in the strength of his regiment, Putnam seemed only to want to get on with things: I hope the Rebels have come over the mountains intending to give us a good thrashing and drive us back onto the border, for if we cannot whip them now when they have come out of there holes and commenced the attack upon us, which gives us a decided advantage over them in selecting our ground to fight on them we never can whip them. Get on they did. In October, a detachment of the 1st Ohio played a role in the Battle of Perryville. Putnam wrote immediately after, sounding like a grizzled veteran less than a year after he enlisted: as you have seen in the papers more about some parts of it than I know although I am close by… [I] see wounded & dead men, and small or no account is made of them in the papers as a sckirmish is of an every day occurance out here and some one gets hurt & killed but no mention is made of them as it is a to small affair. When we came past the Perrisville battleground the dead had not yet been buried and most of the dead secesh had on U.S. cartridge boxes. The secesh held the battle ground all night and robbed our dead and wounded of their clothes, shoes, and every one that was left stripped, their pockets was turned inside our, and some prisoners that we have taken since that fight had on our clothes. Some of our men felt like shooting every one of them that had on our clothes and we asked them where they got their clothes and accused them of robbing our dead and told them to their faces that every one of them that had on our clothes ought to be shot. They laughed and said they got them at Richmond, Ky., when they whipped our new recruits. Our boys felt like killing them but they was prisoners of war & we dare not touch them...
The last of Putnam's letters was dated Oct. 31, 1862, however his fate after that date is unknown. Putnam survived the war, dying in 1911.
Putnam is the best kind of Civil War correspondent: on the spot, articulate, observant, and he writes at length about things he witnessed himself, seldom filling up his pages with news from elsewhere. The letters are replete with accounts of brushes with guerrillas, observations on the local population, issues within the regiment, and the stories are typically told at some length, not merely as brief anecdotes.
Descended Directly in the Putnam-Hildreth Families of Marietta, Ohio
Condition: Generally good condition throughout with expected age, occasional soiling and staining, but perfectly legible throughout.
Auction Location:
6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
Previewing Details:
Tuesday, June 23, 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, June 24 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Taxes:
| Tax | Rate | Desc. |
| Ohio |
5.5% |
Ohio State Tax |
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
17.5% |
Additional Fees:
Shipping Details:
Cowan's is happy to provide a shipping estimate in advance of the auction. We have partnered with an outside shipper - Wrap-It Postal. Their services to our respected customers are based inside the Cowans facility.Please contact Wrap-It Postal by email at shipping@cowans.com, or call 513.871.1670 (ext.19). You can also submit a request for an online quote . All shipping and packing costs will be charged separately by Wrap-It Postal to your credit card on file.
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Buyers who are present at the auction must pay the full purchase price at the time of the sale. Buyers who bid by telephone or who are absentee bidders will be invoiced within 5 days after the close of the auction and must pay the full purchase price for each purchased lot within 14 days after the date of the auction. By signing the absentee bid form or placing an absentee bid by telephone, an absentee bidder authorizes Cowan's to charge the purchase price (hammer price, plus buyer's premium) for each lot for which such bidder is the successful bidder to the credit card number provided by telephone or on the absentee bid form, unless payment in full or alternative payment instruction is received within 14 days after the date of the auction. No property will be released by Cowan's unless the purchase price has been paid in full.
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Cowan's is happy to provide a shipping estimate in advance of the auction. We have partnered with an outside shipper - Wrap-It Postal. Their services to our respected customers are based inside the Cowans facility.Please contact Wrap-It Postal by email at shipping@cowans.com, or call 513.871.1670 (ext.19). You can also submit a request for an online quote . All shipping and packing costs will be charged separately by Wrap-It Postal to your credit card on file.
Cowan's is in no way responsible for the acts or omissions of independent handlers, packers or shippers of purchased items or for any loss, damage or delay from the packing or shipping of any property.
ADVICE TO INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: Cowan's will not ship any package containing a firearm to any location other than within the United States. Buyers outside the United States must make their own shipping arrangements taking full risk for the transportation of any firearm.
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Buyers are required to pay for all packing, shipping and insurance charges. Overseas duty charges are the responsibility of the successful bidder. Be aware that for larger and/or valuable items, shipping charges can be substantial.
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