218 300
389
389
●
Soldier’s tin, percussion cap box.
Ovoid tin box with integral lid, painted with
the Stars and Stripes and a small portrait (?) of a black soldier on the lid., 2
5
⁄
8
x 1
1
⁄
2
x
3
/
4
inches; top convex.
Np, circa 1861-1865
[1,500/2,500]
A RARE SURVIVAL
.
Items like this little cap box were often lost in the confusion of battle. This
painted tin box would typically hold percussion caps that had to be placed over the “nipple” of a per-
cussion action rifle or musket where the hammer would strike. This action sent a flame into the
chamber which would ignite the charge, firing the musket-ball. The only inconvenience here was the
time it took one to ram a charge down the barrel, drop a ball down same, place a cap over the nipple
and fire. Not exactly efficient. A scene in the recent film “Glory” shows Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
explaining this procedure to the new African American recruits.
390
●
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.
The Military Conscription Law! State Laws
Disregarded! The Able-Bodied Citizens Handed Over to the President! White
Men and Negroes Mixed in! The State has no Voice over her Own Citizen
Soldiery!
Four pages. Folio leaf, folded to make four tall narrow 4to pages. The first page
in the form of a sensational broadside; paper evenly toned.
Np, [Connecticut, 1863]
[600/800]
A SCARCE COPPERHEAD
,
ANTI
-
LINCOLN
,
ANTI WAR FULMINATION OVER THE
1863
CON
-
SCRIPTION ACT
.
The deadly draft riots in New York City overshadowed others in New England
and elsewhere. The Irish and German working class immigrants were the ones most affected by the
draft. They rose up and destroyed property in Boston and even Rutland Vermont. In Boston the
number of blacks killed and injured was certainly underreported, as were the figures for other cities that
erupted over the bill. The text following the sensational first page of this piece is simply the
Conscription Act itself with all 38 “and be it further enacted” points spelled out. OCLC locates only
four copies of this piece.
391
●
LEONARD, ELLEN.
Three Days Reign of Terror, or The July Riots in
1863.
24 pages. 8vo, original printed self-wrappers; outer leaves toned; stain through the
entire piece at the top inner corner; stitching loose.
New York: Off-print from Harper’s Magazine for January of 1867
[400/600]
A first-hand account of Ellen Leonard and her mother’s survival of the violent draft riots of July,
1863. The two had just arrived in the city for a vacation when the streets erupted into chaos. While
present in a number of libraries, no copy at auction in the last 20 years; not in Blockson Collection.