Latest Aquisition: 20th Indiana ID Disk recovered from Gettysburg

Michael W.

First Sergeant
Joined
Jun 19, 2015
Location
The Hoosier State
I didn't acquire anything at the Dalton show this past weekend, so I'll share what I acquired at Cowan's Auctions last November. I don't collect ID disks in and of themselves, but I do collect Indiana identified artifacts, and I could not let this pass by. Garrison Allred served in Co. G, 20th Indiana Vol. Infantry. His name, company, and regiment are inscribed, as well as his hometown of Battleground, Indiana. On the reverse side is inscribed "War of 1861", and 4 battles he participated in: Bull Run, Chantilly, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. The disk was recovered from private property in Gettysburg. Amazingly, the Kearny profile and attaching pin are still intact. Apparently Allred must have ordered the ID disk from a sutler after Chancellorsville, and had it with him one month later at Gettysburg, where he apparently lost it. He survived Gettysburg, only to be killed the following year in Grant's Overland campaign near Spotsylvania by an artillery round. The 20th Indiana sustained heavy casualties in the Wheatfield on July 2nd.
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I didn't acquire anything at the Dalton show this past weekend, so I'll share what I acquired at Cowan's Auctions last November. I don't collect ID disks in and of themselves, but I do collect Indiana identified artifacts.....The 20th Indiana sustained heavy casualties in the Wheatfield on July 2nd

Michael do you happen to know of any letters or diaries from members of the 20th IN that mention the fighting in the Wheatfield that day? Im working on a regimental of the 16th GA Wofford's brigade and would be interested in anything you might have. Thanks in advance. <Edit to add: looks like they may have been too far to the south and west to have encountered my brigade. Assuming they mostly faced Hood and Benning?>
 
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Michael do you happen to know of any letters or diaries from members of the 20th IN that mention the fighting in the Wheatfield that day? Im working on a regimental of the 16th GA Wofford's brigade and would be interested in anything you might have. Thanks in advance. <Edit to add: looks like they may have been too far to the south and west to have encountered my brigade. Assuming they mostly faced Hood and Benning?>
Sorry, no I don't. But Craig Dunn from Kokomo, Indiana wrote a history of the 20th Indiana focusing on their involvement in the wheat field called Harvest Fields of Death: The 20th Indiana Infantry at the Wheat Field at Gettysburg. That's where I would look for personal accounts of the battle.
 
Very nice, thanks for sharing! The 20th Indiana was a hell of a regiment and was in the thick of nearly every major battle with the AoP. I recall that at Gettysburg the 20th mainly faced off against the 3rd Arkansas and elements of Anderson's Georgians in the Rose Woods, but don't remember if they ever moved into the Wheatfield later on. The only primary source I am aware of is Dignity and Duty: The Journals of Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath, 1861-1898, who served as a company officer in the regiment; he only gives a cursory account of their actions at Gettysburg, though. I have yet to read Dunn's Harvest Fields of Death.
 
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I didn't acquire anything at the Dalton show this past weekend, so I'll share what I acquired at Cowan's Auctions last November. I don't collect ID disks in and of themselves, but I do collect Indiana identified artifacts, and I could not let this pass by. Garrison Allred served in Co. G, 20th Indiana Vol. Infantry. His name, company, and regiment are inscribed, as well as his hometown of Battleground, Indiana. On the reverse side is inscribed "War of 1861", and 4 battles he participated in: Bull Run, Chantilly, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. The disk was recovered from private property in Gettysburg. Amazingly, the Kearny profile and attaching pin are still intact. Apparently Allred must have ordered the ID disk from a sutler after Chancellorsville, and had it with him one month later at Gettysburg, where he apparently lost it. He survived Gettysburg, only to be killed the following year in Grant's Overland campaign near Spotsylvania by an artillery round. The 20th Indiana sustained heavy casualties in the Wheatfield on July 2nd.View attachment 271007View attachment 271008
Great acquisition, great piece!
 
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