Museum Monday: Circa 1860 Ladderback Rocking Chair #civilwar150

Rocking Chair

Ladderback Rocking Chair with Woven Seat. North Carolina State Historic Sites.

Ladderback rocking chair with three shaped slats on back.  Woven rush seat, straight legs with turned finial at top.  Wide rockers.  Constructed about 1860.

 

Rocker Detail Ladderback Rocking Chair with Woven Seat. North Carolina State Historic Sites.

Finial Detail. Ladderback Rocking Chair with Woven Seat. North Carolina State Historic Sites.

Source: North Carolina State Historic Sites, accession number 1960.30.20.

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Museum Monday: Embroidered Child’s Dress #cw150

Child’s Dress with embroidered detail. North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number H.1964.2.2

Child’s dress.  Made in Mobile, Alabama for Zemula “Zemmie” Vass (b. 1864) by her mother, Emma Jane Townsend Vass.  Part of Zemmie’s family relocated to Raleigh NC after the Civil War.

Back Waistband detail. Child’s Dress with embroidered detail. North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number H.1964.2.2

Skirt detail. Child’s Dress with embroidered detail. North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number H.1964.2.2

 

Source: North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number H.1964.2.2

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Museum Monday: Civil War era spinning wheel #civilwar150

Spinning wheel . Part of a collection used by the Hearne family in Greenville, NC (Pitt County). Likely used by Nina Harris Redditt and Belle Hearne Harris.

 

Hearne family spinning wheel, Pitt County, NC. NC Museum of History Collections.

Source: North Carolina Museum of History, accession number 1987.111.28

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Museum Monday: Confederate revolvers made after 1863 in Georgia #civilwar150

Confederate revolvers, made in Georgia, North Carolina Museum of History, accession numbers 1963.22.14-15

Revolvers

Brass, iron, and wood .36 caliber revolvers.  Made by Spiller & Burr of Atlanta, Georgia.  Serial numbers 1214 and 882.  Patterned after the US 1858 Whitney Navy Revolver, 1500 of these were made in Atlanta and Macon, Georgia 1862-1865.  These were made after May 1863.

Curator’s note:

Due to shortages of materials, iron was used instead of steel for the cylinder, and brass was used instead of iron for the frame.  Both are marked “CS.”  These revolvers are considered second model style because of the major changes to the lock frame that occurred during the summer of 1863 because the lock frames burst during successive firings.  M.H. Wright proposed the decrease “the distance froom the end of the cylinder to the lock frame in front – so that there would be but slight play between the end of the cylinder and the lock frame, instead of ¾ of an inch or thereabouts…this would…increase the strength…of the frame.”  All revolvers manufactured after May 1863 incorporated this change.

 

Source: North Carolina Museum of History, Accession numbers 1963.22.14-15

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Museum Monday: Bible of Capt Young, perhaps youngest commissioned officer in the CSA #cw150

Inside. Bible of Capt. John P. Young, 7th Regiment, killed at Chancellorsville. North Carolina Museum of History, 1960.32.109

Inscribed:

“Bible of

Cpt John P Young

7^th Reg

Lane’s Brigade

Richmond Va

Killed at Chancellorsville

May 3^rd 1863

Enlisted May 16, 1861

2^nd Lieutenant

Advance to Capt Co B

7^th Regiment – March 11, 1863

Youngest Commissioned Officer

In the Confederate Army

15 ½ Years Old”

 

At the age of sixteen, John P. Young enlisted with his father in 1861. They served together in 1862. The father resigned in January 1863, and in March John was promoted to captain. On May 3, 1863, he died leading his company in an attack on the Federal lines at Chancellorsville. From Cabarrus County, NC, Young was a cadet at the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte before the war. Read about the 7^th Regiment’s history here.

 

Cover, Bible of Capt. John P. Young, 7th Regiment, killed at Chancellorsville. North Carolina Museum of History, 1960.32.109

Source: North Carolina Museum of History Collections, accession number 1960.32.10

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Museum Monday: Coin silver cup made in Salem and carried by a soldier throughout the war #civilwar150

Silver Cup

Silver cup given to John Lawson Wrenn by his sister Bettie. Source: North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number 1933.4.1

Curator’s Notes: In 1861, when the Civil War was declared, Bettie Archer Wrenn had her silver coins melted down and made into this cup for her brother, John Lawson Wrenn.  The cup was made by Moravian silversmith, Traugott Leinbach, in Salem, North Carolina.  Wrenn carried the cup throughout the war as a member of the 4^th Regiment of North Carolina Cavalry.

 

Inscription detail. Silver cup given to John Lawson Wrenn by his sister Bettie. Source: North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number 1933.4.1

Maker’s Marks. Silver cup given to John Lawson Wrenn by his sister Bettie. Source: North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number 1933.4.1

Source: North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number 1933.4.1

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1863 Instructions for cheap door mats – cut old woolen goods into strips and sew #cw150

Cheap Door Mats

Cut any old woolen articles into long strips, from one to two inches broad. Braid three of these together, and sew the braid in gradually increasing circles till large enough.

Source: Confederate Receipt Book. A Compilation of Over 100 Receipts, Adapted to the Times. (Richmond, Virginia: West & Johnston, 1863)

Braided rug. No date. NC State Historic Sites, accession number 1962.14.3.

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Museum Monday: homemade uniform coat with damage from battle #cw150

Homemade coat features homespun lining.
Collections of the North Carolina Museum of History, accession number 1965.78.1

Uniform Coat

 

Used in the Civil War by Dixon G. Conn of Raleigh.  Damage to the upper arm of coat is evidence of a wound sustained by Conn at the Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862. Although Conn was severaly wounded in the shoulder, hip, thigh, and leg, he returned to duty for a brief period at the end of 1862 but was discharged in early 1863 by reason of disability from his wounds.

Conn was first mustered in as a private with the 15^th NC State Troops (later Company K 32^nd NCST) and later promoted to First Sergeant.

Homemade coat features homespun lining. Non-original CSA buttons (1870-1880 reproductions)

Homemade coat features homespun lining.
Collections of the North Carolina Museum of History, accession number 1965.78.1

Homemade coat features homespun lining.
Collections of the North Carolina Museum of History, accession number 1965.78.1

Collections of the North Carolina Museum of History, accession number 1965.78.1

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Museum Monday: Drum used by Confederate Military and brought home at the end of the war #cw150

This drum was brought to Henderson at the end of the Civil War by a wounded soldier and features a circular decoration on one side made with tacks.
North Carolina Museum of History, Accession Number 1942.39.1

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Museum Monday: Ring carved from a beef bone by a Confederate prisoner of war #cw150

Ring carved with a heart and leaf motif.  Made from beef bone by a Confederate prisoner of war. Inscribed “H.C.H. inside. North Carolina Museum of History, accession number 1914.75.1

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