RARE – Identified wooden canteen that belonged to a Confederate soldier who was captured at Petersburg, VA (SOLD)

This is great identified canteen being offered. It is a “Cheesebox” canteen, possibly maple, with a diameter of 7 ½” and 2 ½” wide, circa 1800 – 1820. It has the original green paint remaining and has period stenciling on both sides. One has “ T BYRD” and the other “ 13 N.C.V. The leather strap guides are long, but you can still make out the tiny holes where they were attached. This canteen belonged to Thomas Byrd who enlisted as a Private on January 28, 1864, at Camp Holmes, Raleigh, NC.

He was assigned to Company “A” of the 13^th North Carolina Volunteers. For some reason his records show that he was listed as “Deserted” on April 12, 1864, but maybe he was just missing for a few days,  because he was with his unit at Petersburg in 1865.

At Petersburg, the13th North Carolina Infantry had a memorable Sunday morning, April 2nd, Union forces succeeded in breaking General Robert E. Lee's lines at Petersburg, necessitating the falling back of the regiment to avoid capture. It was here that a gallant and brave officer, Lt. Col. Elijah B. Withers (previous Company Commander of Company A), was running with the others to avoid being captured.

Being halted by a Union soldier with a musket at a distance of about fifty yards, with the command, "Stop, you damn rebel!", Withers replied, "Kiss my foot, you old rascal!" and but for a failure of the musket to fire he would have been shot.

The regiment had a sharp engagement with the enemy about noon of that day, losing several good men, but checking their advance. The 13th spent several days under almost continuous fire in covering General Lee's retreat. On April 2^nd, Byrd was captured and sent to Point Lookout, Maryland prison. He remained there until June 23^rd when he took an “Oath of Allegiance” and released.

This canteen is actually what is referred to as a “Cheesebox” canteen or War of 1812 canteen. I talk about these canteens in my book “The Civil War Canteen – Third Edition”. By the start of the Civil War in 1861, these canteens were obsolete and no longer manufactured. However, many of these canteens were still being used by local Militia units. When the war started, most new enlistees brought their own canteens with them, especially with the Confederacy, where supplies were very limited. No doubt, Private Byrd brought this canteen with him when he went off to war.

This canteen really has a lot going for it, being identified to a Confederate soldier, the unit he was in, an early canteen with original paint, and the soldier being captured and a POW, only a week before the end of the war.