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WILLIAM J. HAND 3rd PA RESERVES: GREAT BROWN INK TAGGED CANTEEN, G.A.R. SOLDIER’S MEMORIAL, CASED PHOTO IN UNIFORM, BEAUTIFUL ENAMELED GAR WATCH FOB WITH CHAIN: TWICE WIA AND POW

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This identified grouping displays very strongly. It includes the soldier’s framed, multi-color veteran’s memorial with G.A.R. themes, filled out with his service details and presented to his wife and children, his watch chain with a very colorful GAR badge watchfob, a wartime photo of him seated with his enlisted frock coat opened to show off a fancy bowtie, vest, and white shirt, cased in figural thermoplastic case with “THE UNION AND CONSTITUTION” with flags and U.S. shield on one side, and also his wartime, light blue covered Philadelphia canteen, in good condition, maker marked and with Hand’s name scratched into the spout and with a great brown ink tag reading, “This canteen was carried by W.J. Hand through the Civil War. It went through thirteen (13) battles, was in Libby Prison and Belle Island Prisons.”

The memorial shows some creases and folds, but no missing pieces and the color is strong. These came in several forms, with some produced during the war, but really hit their stride among veterans. This one is done in form of a certificate of service and shows an eagle at top with raised wings and a banner reading “Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty,” the motto of the G.A.R., with a G.A.R. badge at bottom center, and vignettes showing battle scenes involving the navy, cavalry, artillery and infantry. A US shield at top, with just slight fading to the white and blue, is filled out by hand “Penna. Reserves” with personal details of the soldier filled in below, also by hand. The bottom has a oval bust portrait of Lincoln titled “The Soldier’s Friend.” The very bottom has a caption added, “Presented by Comrade Hand to his wife Catherine and children David S., Jerry W. , Floyd B. and Homer B. Feby. 1911.”

Floyd’s service record in the main body follows the usual format of his personal details and some general regimental history. It chronicles his enlistment from Wayne County 10/12/61 and muster into Co. B of 3^rd Regiment Penna Res. Vol. Infantry for three years. (This regiment was the 32^nd Pennsylvania as numbered in the states line.) It records their membership in the 5^th Corps on the Peninsula, and participation at Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill, where Hand was wounded by a gunshot in the left arm, captured, held at Libby and Belle Island, for 41 days, was exchanged and purportedly returned in time to take part in Gainesville, Groveton, 2^nd Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg and Burnsides “Mud March,” followed by duty in Washington and Alexandria (as part of the 22^nd Corps and the Dept. of Washington, D.C.) and then Martinsburg with operations at various spots in Virginia (as part of the Department of West Virginia,) concluding with Cook’s Expedition against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad May 2 to May 19, 1864, and the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain on May 9, where he was wounded again, this time in the left knee. The regiment returned home to be mustered out in June. Hand, apparently after recovering from his wound, was finally discharged at Harrisburg in August 1864.

Hand’s photograph is 9^th plate ambrotype, matted, glassed, framed and cased, with raised floral motifs on one side of the case, and the patriotic motifs on the other, bordered by floral elements as well.

The watch chain and G.A.R. fob are excellent, with bright colors and the back of the fob professionally engraved, “W.H.H. Co. B 3^rd Reg.” in script and “P.R.V.C.” in shaded block letters below. The chain retains its crossbar and what seems to be the winding stem of he watch.

Hand’s canteen is a typical Philadelphia Depot corrugated (“bullseye”) pattern with a very good light blue cover showing some dirt, stains, light wear and slight fading, but no significant holes, lacking the sling, but with stopper and string cord in place. The throat shows the slightly stamp of Philadelphia tinsmith Albert Dorff, light along its bottom edge,  who had a January 7, 1864, contract for 75,000 of these corrugated canteens, likely subcontracted to J.H. Rohrman. Hand scratched his name in the spout, partly over the Dorff stamping. The tag with the canteen has a string showing it was originally attached to it, and the pair show off very nicely together. Given the production date of the canteen, it would not have been the one he carried at the beginning of the war, or while a prisoner, but given that the note, like the memorial, likely dates decades after the war, memories of details like dates of issue of equipment might be a little inexact.

Hand was born Jan.19, 1842, at Hawley, Wayne County, PA. He was working on the family farm when he enlisted. By 1870 he was listing himself as an Engineer in the census, and also in 1880. In 1900 he listed himself as a lumber agent. After the war he was a member of the Lt. Ezra Griffin Post 139 of the Pennsylvania Dept. of the G.A.R. in Scranton, PA, and his acquisition of the memorial and presentation to his family in February 1911 was certainly spurred by the 50^th anniversary of the start of the war. It was also fortuitously timed: he died just eight months later, on Oct. 23, 1911, at Dunmore, Lackawanna Co., PA, and was interred at South Canaan Wayne County. His last surviving child, Homer, passed away in 1966 in New Jersey.

This makes a great display.  [sr] [ph:m/L]

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