My "Materials Monday: 50 Shades of Beige" Facebook series in October features items or collections from our archives. As I was deciding what 5 items or archival collections to highlight, I discovered that not only did I have a Civil War era Company Cook receipt from 1862 in beige tones, I had an unpublished article written by local historian and newspaper columnist Gerhard Spieler about it! He wrote on April 28, 1994, to wit.:
Questions about an 1862 military pay receipt at a recent meeting of the Beaufort County Historical Society resulted in some surprising answers. It turned out to be a relict of a Beaufort stay of the artillery company of the First Light Infantry, Connecticut Volunteers.
The pay receipt consisted of an 8X4 inch white paper slip, folded lengthwise. On one side was the inscription" Beaufort, S.C. Dec. 31st, 1862./ Received of Capt. A.P. Rockwell Comdg./ 1st Light Battery C.V. Twenty two 50/100 Dollars / ($22.50) for Extra Services as Company Cook from October 1st to December 31st 1862/ [Signed] Emery Norwood.
On the other side, the endorsement read "Receipt / Private Norwood, Camp Cook / Oct. 1st to Dec. 31st 1862 / $22 50/100." The receipt had been sent to the local historical society by the Nez Perce County Historical Society of Lewiston, Idaho with a covering letter. It stated that "occasionally some-one donates historically significant items along ... and requests that we find an appropriate 'home' for them. Enclosed you will find a receipt that may be significant to your scope of collections."
The First Light Battery [Connecticut Volunteers] arrived from New York aboard a sailing ship in Beaufort on Feb. 4, 1862. The journey had been a stormy one, the vessel was blown out to sea and a voyage which normally took four or five days had taken twelve. Fourteen of the Battery's horses died during the voyage.
The History stated that "although Beaufort was one of the principal shipping points in the South, and the water deep enough for any ocean-going ship, yet there were o docks, so the Ellwood Walter had to be unloaded, as was the custom there, by means of flat-boats. What a work it was! Horses, guns and ammunition had to be hoisted out of the hold, swung over the side of the ship and lowered into a flatboat."
The officers of the artillery battery were quartered in "a Johnson House" in Beaufort. Tents were pitched for the men in a lot opposite the house; a line of Sibley tents on either side, with the guns parked between them. At the rear of the Johnson house, stables were built. A vacant lot adjoining officers' quarters contained an old shanty used by the cooks.
Private Griswold and his fellow Connecticut solders attended church quite often, sometimes twice on Sundays. The History mentioned "an old Episcopal chapel within a small cemetery, some of the gravestone dating back to the middle of the eighteenth century."
Services were held "in this chapel ... presided over by the chaplains of the different organizations - and at one time meetings were held of a debating club, the members coming from every regiment on the island. Many important subjects were finally settled at meetings of this club."
Pvt. Griswold mentioned in his diary that "there was a colored lady who lived behind the church to whom the soldiers would take their ration of flour and any fruit like blackberries and she would bake them pies for five cents. Each soldier got a weekly ration of flour. She seems to have done a thriving business so must have been a good cook. The soldiers soon learned that not all of the black women were good cooks."
There were casualties, some suffered in battle and others from sickness which was rampant. On April 18, 1862 "we went to the funeral of eleven of the Mich. 8th who were killed at a fight on Wilmington Island. The First Battery took part in a May 28-30 expedition to Pocotaligo. In June, part of the Battery "took part in an unsuccessful attempt to take Charleston."
The diary noted for July 5, 1862 "a pleasant morning. We are going up the Beaufort River on the Steamer Delaware. Anchored last night at Hilton Head. We are almost as glad to see Beaufort as we should home. Sergeant Spencer died at Hilton Head."
In a letter from Beaufort, March 11, 1862 Edward Griswold wrote: "There was a party of 40 or so men and women arrived here on the Mail Steamer Atlantic Sunday from the North. Their business is to set the blacks to work on the plantations and to teach them to read and write, and also to instruct them in spiritual things ... They have taken quarters within a few rods of our camp ..."
The grandson, Edward M. Griswold, checked personally and concluded the same as Katherine M. Jones, in her book Port Royal Under Six Flags, "they stayed in a house at 701 Greene Street." That would be the present deTreville House, located at the corner of Greene and Carteret Streets. [Gerhard Spieler lived in the deTreville house with his wife Ruth deTreville Spieler until his death.]
Edward Griswold wrote in one of his letters that "the Battery left Beaufort July 12, 1862 and spent most of the next nine months on Folly Island. They were also encamped on James, Johns, and Morris Islands."
Edward M. Griswold mentioned in his account that Grandfather described Folly Island as "a God forsaken sand bar inhabited only by mosquitoes and sand fleas."
PS: My cellphone camera makes the document look more gray than beige but beige it is. You could always make an appointment to come see for yourself. Contact us: 843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net to make the necessary arrangements.
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