?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
HE SERVED AT LINCOLN'S FUNERAL, AND IN THE HUNT FOR BOOTH (CIVIL WAR--1865.) Dixon, William. Diary and other effects of a Lincoln funeral procession escort. Diary: 44 pages of manuscript diary entries and 19 pages of other notes. 12mo, contemporary calf, minor wear; internally clean and legible. With 7 related items, various sizes and conditions. Maryland and Washington, DC, 24 February to 5 July 1865
William Dixon (1838-1924) enlisted as a private in the 1st Pennsylvania Reserve Light Artillery in 1862. According to his diary, on 27 March 1865, he began serving as an acting lieutenant of his battery. Within a week, Richmond had fallen and Dixon could report "great rejoicing among the men." Dixon's entry for 19 April 1865 is his claim to fame: "Ordered to report to Headquarters . . . as an escort at the funeral of our late president (Abraham Lincoln). I was an escort for Andrew Johnson, now president of the United States. The funeral was well conducted, and was a solemn scene, one that I shall ever remember." Two days later, having been marched to Fort Lincoln in Washington, he wrote "Day very gloomy. Went on a scout after Booth, the murderer of our president (Lincoln.) Did not find or see any one." He noted on 27 April, "Reported capture of the assassin Booth and his death by his captors." Also included in this lot are: An embossed card from the funeral procession, worn at folds, titled "In Memory of Abraham Lincoln," completed in manuscript. Dixon was apparently number 823 in the procession, and was designated to march 50 3/4 yards from the front. Dixon's white glove, understood to be worn by him during procession. Dixon's red and gold artillery lieutenant bars. Two manuscript orders issued to Dixon from the end of his service, June 1865. A worn newspaper clipping about Lincoln from a later Kansas newspaper (where Dixon lived after the war). A 1920 letter concerning Dixon's pension. Provenance: Historical Collectible Auctions, 27 September 2007, lot 504.
