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15th PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN PRESENTATION CANE FROM CAPTAIN G.S. CLARK

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Made from a tree branch cut as a souvenir, varnished and fitted with a metal tip and silver knob, this cane bears a nicely engraved presentation from Captain George S. Clark of the 15^th Pa. Cavalry. The knob is cast and chased with raised floral motifs around the top edge and in a narrow band above a ferrule at the base. The top flat is engraved near one edge “LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN” and along the other, “Aug. 20^th 1864.” The center is taken up with the presentation: “Presented to / B.H. Rush, Esq. / by / Capt. G.S. Clark / 15^th Penna. Cavalry.”

The date is not the date of the famous battle, but likely the date of Clark’s visit to the mountain landmark. The regiment, a fighting unit in the Army and Department of the Cumberland, had been ordered to Nashville to refit in May 1864 and was there until September, when it again took the field. Clark obviously took the opportunity to visit the mountain, which continued to attract visitors even during the war. Collectors will be familiar with the many photographs taken there by the Linn brothers starting in late 1863.

George S. Clark (1838-1921) rose from private to captain in the 15^th PA Cavalry. He was mustered in as a private in Co. L on 10/3/62. On 3/1/63 he was promoted to quartermaster sergeant, and commissioned captain of Co. E 5/8/63. He was wounded in action 12/13/63 at Gatlinburg, near Sevierville. He served to the end of the war, being discharged 6/21/65. He died at Philadelphia in 1921 and is buried in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.he recipient, “B.H. Rush, Esq.” was obviously a civilian, from his title and will bear further research. We did find a doctor of that name during the period and Clark had been wounded the previous December, but we cannot establish a firm connection. He could also have been a personal friend or business acquaintance, had some involvement with the administration of the area after Union forces regained control, or a friend made during that visit to the landmark.

The 15^th Pennsylvania Cavalry recruited in Fall 1862 around a nucleus of members of the Anderson Troop, an elite cavalry unit recruited under special authority of the War Department to serve as escort and headquarters guard for General Robert Anderson in Kentucky and subsequently attached to the headquarters of Buell and of Rosecrans. The 15^th saw some action in the Antietam Campaign even before it was fully organized and then moved to the western theatre, where it saw very active campaigning throughout the war, including the Chickamauga campaign, skirmishes at Mossy Creek and other locations, scouting and harassing Longstreet’s forces, fighting at Jonesboro, numerous small expeditions, and Stoneman’s raid into North Carolina. The regiment served to the end of the war, mustering out in June and July 1865, having lost 3 officers and 22 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded.

We should add that the gift of a cane may have had special significance for Captain Clark. In the engagement near Sevierville, where elements of the regiment routed an enemy force camped in the mountains at Gatlinburg, he had been wounded, “seriously in the knee.” Making the cane from a branch cut on a mountaintop might have been to make a point about his recovery.  [SR]

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