Match Safe recovered at the Antietam Battlefield

This is another nice item being offered, it is a Civil War soldier's match safe. It is brass with a hinged-lid and measures approximately 3” x 1”. On the bottom of the match safe is a ribbed area used for striking the matches. Being in the ground for so many years, the top has now separated from the bottom.

There is an almost identical example of this piece in Time/Life “Echoes of Glory – Arms and Equipment of the Union”. That one is pictured with a package of Cavendish tobacco, which I also have available on the website (see pictures). There is another very similar one at the Gettysburg NPS Battlefield Museum (see pictures).

The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, was fought on September 17, 1862. This was the first major battle in the Civil War to take place on Union soil. It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of dead, wounded, and missing at 22,717.

 Despite having superiority of numbers, McClellan's attacks failed to achieve force concentration, allowing General Lee to counter by shifting forces and moving interior lines to meet each challenge. Despite ample reserve forces that could have been deployed to exploit localized successes, McClellan failed to destroy Lee's army. McClellan had halted Lee's invasion of Maryland, but Lee was able to withdraw his army back to Virginia without interference from the cautious McClellan.

Although today we don't think much about it, to the Civil War soldier in the field, it was an everyday necessity to have dry matches, for campfires, candles, tobacco, etc. In my book “The Civil War Soldier – His Personal Items”, I show a similar match safe from my personal collection, that was also dug at Antietam. In my book I  ago into more detail about the importance of matches to the Civil War soldier (see pictures).

A match safe is truly a necessity for any Civil War collection, just about every soldier had one. I had quite a few dug examples over the years which validates their use. It would go great with a Civil War soldier’s personal effects display.