Another such regiment was the 8th New York Heavy Artillery. I have several pieces that belonged to Lt. Col. Joseph Holmes who commanded it following the death of the colonel at Cold Harbor. Holmes led it through the Petersburg Campaign and siege. After the war, he supposedly moved to Dallas, Tex., where he was a Baptist minister. In the late 1960's when I was a college kid his maiden daughters consigned his personal military effects to a then legendary shop,
Militaria, run by something of a mentor of mine, Bob Cowan. Stupidly, instead of putting the entire pile on lay-away and paying it out, I instead bought some of it piece-by-piece. In the large photo below, only a portion belonged to Holmes: the French-made binoculars, "punkin seed" whisky flask, chess pawn and bone die, and the unfolded red-and-white striped polished-cotton sewing kit or "housewife"; his lt. col. of artillery red shoulder straps are the upper pair in the small shadowbox. Unfortunately, doing it that way I missed out on the "big" items like his comissions and his M.1850 Staff-and-field sword!
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