ID'ed wallet

[estephenson]

The most recent addition to my collection is an ID'ed officers wallet. I have copied some information on the officer below.

Twenty-one year old Garrett Graveraet of Harbor Springs, Michigan was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant of Company K, 1st Michigan Sharpshooters. The governor wished to form the company with the best shooters of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indian tribes. Garrett Graveraet was an Ottawa with great influence among the young men. His father, 49 year old Henry Graveraet, enlisted as a private, also in Company K. The company saw heavy battle and took great losses. Henry died at Fredericksburg, and Garrett died in a Washington, DC Hospital of wounds suffered at Cold Harbor. Garrett was unmarried.

The wallet is marked Harbor Springs and is later stamped with the name Robert H. Wright, Garretts nephew, b. 1868. The wallet looks to be 1850's.

My browser will not let me post images, please follow link.

http://gallery.me.com/e_stephenson/100083

If anyone wants measurements, etc on wallet, just ask.

[Fenianboy]

Re: ID'ed wallet

Very neat item.Thanks for posting it!

[OldKingCrow]

Re: ID'ed wallet

Thanks for sharing that is awesome.

It is interesting here in Florida and I assume elsewhere, there are mainstream sutlers that sell a wallet which is VERY similar to that. It is sold with a small note pad inserted under the "central strap" if you will.

I post this as it makes me think and it seems so, that the sutler one was indeed fashioned after an original and I wonder about the pad of paper. Perhaps a little schematic done in "paint" of the measurements would be a nice supplement with the photos for those inclined to leather work.

Thanks again.... great artifact with the story as well makes it even more special !!!

[NM1859]

Re: ID'ed wallet

Eric,

Dan Wambaugh informed me about your remarkable find. I was very surprised and pleased to hear that you had discovered the wallet used by Lieutenant Garrett A. Graveraet of the 'Indian Company' of the First Regiment of Michigan Sharpshooters. I thought it would be helpful to provide some additional information about his service. The following obituary was written by Dewitt Leach and published in the Detroit Adviser and Tribune. Leach was Indian Commissioner for Michigan; appointed by President A. Lincoln. Lt. Driggs' father was a representative from Michigan and it was he who arranged to have Lt. Graveraet's body exhumed and brought back to be buried at St. Anne's cemetery on Mackinac Island. A large stone commemorating both First Sargeant and Lt. Gareraet's service is just inside the north entrance. My thanks to Co. 'K' researcher, Chris Czopek, for the obituary. For those interested in obtaining more information about Company 'K', I highly recommend Ray Herek's book: These Men Have Seen Hard Service-The First Michigan Sharpshooters in the Civil War.

Bill Skillman
Randolf Mess-USSS
PCC-Robert Finch (Co. B. 1st MI SS) Camp 14, SUVCW

To the Editor of the Advertiser and Tribune [date: ?? 1865]

Countless, almost, are the precious lives that have been freely given for the salvation of the Republic. Men of all grades, high or low, rich and poor, have forsaken home and all the endearments and pleasures of social and domestic life, and voluntarily assumed the cares, labors, and dangers of the camp and the battlefield, solely for the love they bore their native land. I have one such in mind now, and I feel it is both a duty and pleasure to pen a few lines to his memory.

Lieut. Garret A. Graveraet was, I think, a native of Mackinac. His father was a white man; his mother an Indian woman, of the Chippeway tribe. Young Graveraet's early life was spent in the wild region around Mackinac. Hence his faculties for education were very limited, but so well were they improved that he became a very good scholar. He spoke the English, French and Chippeway language with care and fluency. He had a taste for painting, and, without instruction, executed some very creditable pieces.

My acquaintance with him commenced about three years since. About that time he received an appointment as teacher in an Indian school near Little Traverse (now Petoskey/Harbor Springs). He faithfully performed his duties as teacher, but the confinement of the school room proved injurious to his health, and compelled him to resign.

Soon after his resignation, authority was given to raise a company of Indian volunteers for the 1st Michigan Sharp Shooters. Patriotic and fearless in the highest degree, he entered with energy and zeal upon the recruiting service, and when the regiment was formed was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Company K.

I last saw Lieut. Graveraet at Annapolis, Maryland, in March last. He was then, although not in good health, busy with hammer and saw making repairs in camp, and hopeful and cheerful as ever.

After the regiment went to the front he was engaged in several severe battles, and upon all occasions proved himself more than worthy of
the place he filled.

His father, who was a Sergeant in the same company, was killed in the terrible battle at Spottsylvania. The Lieutenant, who was noted for his affection for his parents, had no time for tears. Beside his father's corpse he fought with renewed energy, apparently regardless of his own safety, and seeking only his country's honor and welfare.

Lieut. W. J. Driggs, of the same company, says of him that "he never shrank from danger. At the battle of the Wilderness, and at Spotsylvania he remained constantly with the men, sharing their danger and encouraging them to stand their ground. He often complained of his health, which was usually very feeble, and I had frequently urged him to remain at the hospital or in camp. But this he would not do. He was determined to be with his men. In the disastrous charge before Petersburg, on the 17th of June [1864], he placed himself at the head, and called on them to follow. It was there a bullet struck his left arm near the shoulder. He was taken to the hospital and the arm amputated. The next day he was taken to Washington where he died, I think, on the 1st of July. He was the most popular officer in the regiment, and his loss was deeply felt."

As a fitting close to this brief notice of one of the most worthy young men I have ever known, I will add that his last act before leaving for the seat of war, was to purchase and fit up a house and lot for his mother and sister, who were chiefly dependent on him for support. And the last time he was paid off he sent to the writer of this to be transmitted to his mother for her own use and benefit all the money which his own pressing wants did not demand. Not only a hero, but a dutiful and affectionate son.

One thing more. Lieut. Graveraet spent the greater part of his life among a people somewhat rough and uncultivated; but he was gentlemanly and refined in his manners. He moved in a circle where intemperance was common, but he touched not the intoxicating cup. He was surrounded by profanity, but he was not profane.

I have said his mother was an Indian woman; but she is an educated and worthy one. She has given her husband and her only son to the country. May a merciful Providence and a generous people watch over her declining years!

[poem ends the obituary]

O! wrap the flag around me, boys,
And lay me down to die.
Where the cannons roar around me,
And the carnage rises high;
While my last thoughts of my country
And my mother - Oh! my God!
Let thy strong right arm supoort her,
While she passes 'neath the sod.
D. C. L.

[estephenson]

Re: ID'ed wallet

Bill, thank you very much for the information. I have contacted the Michigan Historical Museum and have offered the wallet to be on loan through the 150th anniversary.

Eric