Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
/

Sale 2708 - Lot 66

Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(CIVIL WAR--MASSACHUSETTS.) Military hospital patient card and other papers for Albert Davis of the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. 6 items, various sizes, generally minor wear. Various places, 1864-1888
Request Condition Report Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Albert A. Adams (1839-1864) was tailor from Lawrence, MA who became a captain in the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.

The first item in this melancholy grouping is a routine letter home from a healthy Captain Davis to his wife Mary Stubbs Davis, 24 January 1864. Stationed at Fort Tillinghast in the defenses of Washington, he reflects on her recent visit and wonders whether their newborn child will prevent future visits.

The regiment was soon called to the front for the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, where Davis was badly wounded at Harris Farm on 19 May 1864 and brought to Lincoln General Hospital in Washington. This lot includes his Union hospital patient card giving his vital details, next of kin, and diagnosis: "Right knee, ball entering to left of patella, fracturing it, exit popliteal oface [fossa?] alongside of main hamstring." In other words, he was badly wounded in his knee. The card stated that he was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness, a much larger battle which took place on the same day. The back of the card has a section for treatment, but no treatment is mentioned; amputation would have been typical for this kind of wound. The "result" is filled in, though: "Died June 13th 1864."

Next is a formal manuscript resolution of sympathy from Captain Davis's Masonic lodge in Lawrence, sent to his widow, 19 June 1864. Also included is a 20 August 1864 deed for a family cemetery plot issued to the captain's brother Smith Browning Wilkinson Davis at Bellevue Cemetery in Lawrence, where the captain resides today; a pension claim issued to his widow Mary on 21 February 1874; and a pension reimbursement for Mary's final illness issued in Haverhill, MA on 25 February 1888.

Also in This Catalogue