The majority of the items in this group belonged to Clayton Kist, who was a member of the Sons of Union Veterans. The group has a cabinet card photo of Clayton in a 5 button sack-coat with 1890’s cap with insignia for Battery B, 2^nd Artillery. On his coat he wears an SUV membership medal. Also in the group is a small business card for Clayton bearing his name and a smaller version of the photo described above. The card also lists Clayton’s rank as Quartermaster Sergeant in Reeder Battery B, 2^nd Regiment Sons of Veterans Reserve. The crest for this unit is in the upper left hand corner of the card.

There are also two sixth-plate tintypes with the grouping. The first one shows Clayton seated wearing a khaki uniform and campaign hat of the Spanish-American War period. He sits in front of two US flags with a young lady, which appears to be his sister, seated next to him. She is holding flowers and wearing his 5 button sack-coat with SUV medal and campaign hat. The second photo shows the girl by herself, still dressed in the uniform and posing in front of three US flags. Also in the group is a GAR membership star off of a membership medal that belonged to Clayton’s father, Charles W. Kist.

The last item in the group is a post-war copy of a war diary kept by Charles Kist. He starts the diary upon his enlistment and ends it with the Mud March of early 1863. It is written in ink and in Charles Kist’s hand. The diary runs 7 pages with writing on both sides of each page and is very clear. The way this diary is written out it is obvious that Kist wrote this using his wartime diary as a guide. He never finished copying the original. All the items in this collection are in good condition. The corners on the tintypes have been clipped.

Charles W. Kist enlisted in Co. A, 153^rd Pennsylvania Infantry on October 7, 1862. He was captured on the 1^st day of the battle of Gettysburg but was freed by Union forces at the end of that battle. He was discharged on July 23, 1863 and died on April 18, 1893. The 153^rd Pa. was a nine moth regiment that joined the Army of the Potomac right after Fredericksburg and was assigned to the 11^th Corps. It served through the “Mud March,” Chancellorsville and Gettysburg before being mustered out.