2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
Fine postwar scrapbook of Prt. Erastus Winters of Co. K, 50th Ohio Vol. Inf. Winters was captured at the battle of Franklin in November, 1864, was released trom Cahawba the following Spring, and set of for home on the ill-fated steamer Sultana. Winters was picked-up at Vicksburg on Apr. 24, 1865 and the vessel, carrying 2,400 passengers (largely prisoners trom Cahawba and Andersonville), blew up two days later with the loss of 1,700 lives. Although burned, Winters survived, and over the years made a scrapbook of clippings to pass on to future generations. The book is 160pp., 6" x 15", with hundreds of clippings of historic articles, humorous anecdotes, etc. pasted within. Also included are several marginals note, most signed by Winters, as well as several pages of poetry, largely religious, which he penned and signed within. Of particular interest is the first two pages, an A.Ms.S. twice, setting forth a brief summary of his military history. In part: " ... The author was a soldier in the Union Army trom Aug. 22,1862 until May 20th, 1865. Was in the Battle of Perris ville [sic] Kentucky ... in the Atlanta Georgia Campaign from Dalton to Jonesboro ... was then sent back into Tennessee and at the Battle of Franklin ... was captured by the Confederates and kept in Cahaba [sic] Alabama prison until the Spring of 1865. Was released then and sent to Camp Fisk ... then sent to Vicksburg ... and boarded the ill-fated Steamer Sultana ... when about eight miles above Memphis, one of her boilers exploded causing the loss of some sixteen hundred lives ... the writer escaped, was kept in Hospital at Memphis until May 10th ... I was then sent to Camp Chase ... 1 attended a reunion ... stood I suppose on the same spot where I was captured ... the Grays gave the Blues a royal welcome ... April 4th, 1922 ..." Binding is gone hence pages are loose, otherwise very good. The Sultana remains the worst sea disaster in American history, but was overshadowed at the time by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
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