Civil War Soldier’s Spoon from a combination utensil, dug Sailor’s Creek Battlefield

This is another nice piece being offered, it is a brass spoon from the popular soldier’s knife/fork/spoon combination eating utensil. It measures approximately 3 ¾” 1 ½”. It was recovered years ago at the Sailor’s Creek, Virginia Battlefield.

This battle took place when General Robert E. Lee's army was retreating from Richmond to Petersburg. Here, on April 6, 1865, Union General Philip Sheridan cut off and beat back about a quarter of Lee's army. Eight Confederate generals surrendered, and 7,700 men were lost. This was the last major engagement of the war in Virginia; Lee's surrender at Appomattox occurred three days later.

In my book “Battle of Gettysburg – The Relics, Artifacts, & Souvenirs”, I have an example of this spoon which was once part of the “Lee’s Headquarters Museum” in Gettysburg and was found at Culp’s Hill (see pictures). There is also a full page of these same spoons in "Relics of the Western Campaigns", by Stanley Phillips (see pictures). The spoon is slightly bent but solid. It has a very nice untouched patina to the brass.