Quilts Made by POWs

[Reconstructed Rebel]

About fifty years ago, an elderly lady at our church had a quilt she claimed was made by her great uncle while he was a POW at Andersonville. She showed it to me and after I admired it, she offered to give it to me, as she had no family to pass it on to. I told her I thought it belonged in a museum. Unfortunately, she died a short time later and I have no idea what happened to the quilt or her amazing antiques. Going into her house was like going back in time.

Could the quilt have been authentic? It was not very large, more like a crib size blanket. I suppose by curling up a man could sleep under it. It was a patchwork quilt and the scraps of cloth used were very small, none larger than 3 inches at the most, and very irregularly shaped. Fitting the scrapes together must have been a challenge. The sewing of the stitches was very uniform - would a 19th century man be able to sew that well?

The other thing that struck me about it was the vivid colors and the variety of materials - blues for sure, but lots of reds and striped shiny fabric which could have been from a man's vest I suppose, but that certainly wouldn't be regulation uniform material. Anyway, I've just been wondering how much to smack myself over this. Is it possible I passed up an opportunity of a lifetime?

 

[Gary Morgan]

About fifty years ago, an elderly lady at our church had a quilt she claimed was made by her great uncle while he was a POW at Andersonville. She showed it to me and after I admired it, she offered to give it to me, as she had no family to pass it on to. I told her I thought it belonged in a museum. Unfortunately, she died a short time later and I have no idea what happened to the quilt or her amazing antiques. Going into her house was like going back in time.

Could the quilt have been authentic? It was not very large, more like a crib size blanket. I suppose by curling up a man could sleep under it. It was a patchwork quilt and the scraps of cloth used were very small, none larger than 3 inches at the most, and very irregularly shaped. Fitting the scrapes together must have been a challenge. The sewing of the stitches was very uniform - would a 19th century man be able to sew that well?

The other thing that struck me about it was the vivid colors and the variety of materials - blues for sure, but lots of reds and striped shiny fabric which could have been from a man's vest I suppose, but that certainly wouldn't be regulation uniform material. Anyway, I've just been wondering how much to smack myself over this. Is it possible I passed up an opportunity of a lifetime?

Possibly, but at first read, it seems kind of unlikely. Did she give you the name of her ancestor at all? Do you want to tell me her name if you don't know the ancestor's so that I can try and verify that she really had an ancestor who was at Andersonville?

When the prisoners died, in most cases their clothing was then up for grabs. If their buddies didn't strip them off of the body, then someone else would grab them while the body was waiting to be carried out at the South gate. Union blues could have come from uniforms, and there were some outfits that incorporated red (the Zouaves come to mind, and I think that there were red stripes down the sides of some artillery soldiers' pant legs). Soldiers who were transferred from other prisons were sometimes able to receive packages from home that contained clothing that was not military issue and carry them to Andersonville with them, which might explain the striped fabric you saw, or it could have come from some of the guys captured at Plymouth, NC, who were allowed to keep all of their belongings as part of their terms of surrender.

As far as "would a man have been able to sew?" Absolutely. Some of them were professional tailors before they were soldiers, and a sewing kit - needle, thread, a few pins and maybe a button or two - would have been small enough to carry (I have one in my purse, actually).

The piece that I'm sort of hanging up on is the condition - for most of the prison's existence, there was no shelter and no bedding, and so they slept right on the bare red soil. With no reliable source of clean water, I kind of think it would have gotten flithy ad I don't know that they would ever have been able to get the dirt stains out.

Add to that the vermin - fleas, lice, etc, and you begin to understand why a lot of their belongings were simply chucked over the side of the boat or into the fire when the prisoners were finally exchanged. One of my favorite passages about one of the Catholic priests who was there, Father Anselm Usannez, is that after his time at Andersonville was over, he returned to Andersonville, "Covered with Glory and Vermin/Fleas/Lice" (depending on how you translate it from the original Latin). Add to this the fact that there was an outbreak of typhus among the guards in July, 1864 (at least a couple hundred of the guards died while at Andersonville, although that rarely gets much press), and it becomes clear that the vermin affected everyone who was there, whether inside or outside the stockade.

So there are the pros and cons of the thing. I guess the short answer is "I dunno...."

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Ellie (Eleanor) Ticknor was her married name but that isn't going to help. Her parents married in the 1880s I think and had her rather late in life - she was an only child. Unfortunately I don't know her maiden name. I'm feeling a little better since you think it might not be authentic!

 

[debwallsmith]

Possibly, but at first read, it seems kind of unlikely. Did she give you the name of her ancestor at all? Do you want to tell me her name if you don't know the ancestor's so that I can try and verify that she really had an ancestor who was at Andersonville?

When the prisoners died, in most cases their clothing was then up for grabs. If their buddies didn't strip them off of the body, then someone else would grab them while the body was waiting to be carried out at the South gate. Union blues could have come from uniforms, and there were some outfits that incorporated red (the Zouaves come to mind, and I think that there were red stripes down the sides of some artillery soldiers' pant legs). Soldiers who were transferred from other prisons were sometimes able to receive packages from home that contained clothing that was not military issue and carry them to Andersonville with them, which might explain the striped fabric you saw, or it could have come from some of the guys captured at Plymouth, NC, who were allowed to keep all of their belongings as part of their terms of surrender.

As far as "would a man have been able to sew?" Absolutely. Some of them were professional tailors before they were soldiers, and a sewing kit - needle, thread, a few pins and maybe a button or two - would have been small enough to carry (I have one in my purse, actually).

The piece that I'm sort of hanging up on is the condition - for most of the prison's existence, there was no shelter and no bedding, and so they slept right on the bare red soil. With no reliable source of clean water, I kind of think it would have gotten flithy ad I don't know that they would ever have been able to get the dirt stains out.

Add to that the vermin - fleas, lice, etc, and you begin to understand why a lot of their belongings were simply chucked over the side of the boat or into the fire when the prisoners were finally exchanged. One of my favorite passages about one of the Catholic priests who was there, Father Anselm Usannez, is that after his time at Andersonville was over, he returned to Andersonville, "Covered with Glory and Vermin/Fleas/Lice" (depending on how you translate it from the original Latin). Add to this the fact that there was an outbreak of typhus among the guards in July, 1864 (at least a couple hundred of the guards died while at Andersonville, although that rarely gets much press), and it becomes clear that the vermin affected everyone who was there, whether inside or outside the stockade.

So there are the pros and cons of the thing. I guess the short answer is "I dunno...."

Might I add that IF the quilt had been at Andersonville or any southern prison, the red clay would have quickly stained the fabric, a stain that cannot be removed unless lots of bleach is used.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Might I add that IF the quilt had been at Andersonville or any southern prison, the red clay would have quickly stained the fabric, a stain that cannot be removed unless lots of bleach is used.

I'm wondering now if, like so many family history stories that get mangled as they are handed down, this quilt was made by her great uncle who survived Andersonville, but he made the quilt long after his release, perhaps as a blanket for Ellie's bed when she was a child. As @Gary Morgan points out, the fact that it was not faded or much worn is another indication.