Mar 31, 2011 - Sale 2241

Sale 2241 - Lot 118

Price Realized: $ 5,040
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
'BUT FOR THIS STAND AGAINST FEARFUL ODDS, WASHINGTON WOULD HAVE FALLEN" (CIVIL WAR--VERMONT.) Papers of Captain George E. Davis, Medal of Honor recipient and hero of Monocacy. Approximately 300 items (0.7 linear feet), most manuscript, some clippings, photographs, and printed matter, almost all relating to Davis's Civil War service; condition generally excellent. Vp, 1850-1908
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Additional Details

George Evans Davis (1839-1926) of the 10th Vermont Infantry was one of his state's great Civil War heroes. At the Battle of Monocacy in July 1864, a large Confederate force was marching on a virtually undefended Washington. Davis was a lieutenant in charge of a 75-man company which held off a vastly superior force for just long enough to cover the Union retreat, being the last unit to leave the field. After the war, Davis was an unofficial regimental historian who did extensive research on Monocacy and other aspects of the war. He eventually resigned from the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, citing a conflict between these "secret societies" and his Christian principles.
Highlights include: a letter from Gen. James B. Ricketts, 17 May 1873 on the importance of Monocacy: 'But for this obstinate stand against fearful odds, Washington would have fallen and the whole character of the war changed' 3 post-war letters from fellow Medal of Honor winner Alexander Scott, the last dated 1 October 1897 and thanking Davis for helping him get the medal, 'the only decoration that this government confers upon her citizens' An insurance policy made out to CSA General Joseph R. Anderson of the Tredegar Iron Works in 1856, and salvaged by Davis in May 1865 after the works had been abandoned A packet of 20 newspaper clippings about Monocacy Early Davis family photographs, including an otherwise unknown post-war image of Davis (see illustration) A tattered portion of the regimental flag. More detailed inventory available upon request.