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Re: SC Early War Accouterments?
I'm late to the party here but these may be of interest.
I've spent a little time looking up info on Yancey Dean and this SC haversack. Here's what I think I know:
The original haversack is entirely hand sewn; made from a double layer of cotton drill with a plain weave cotton strap 47” long. There is evidence that a closure was present at some point in the bags history due to the remains of the attachments on the flap and bottom of the bag (as may be seen in picture 3).
Yancey Dean enlisted at Edgefield, SC in Gary’s Watson Guards which became Co. B of Hampton’s Legion where he was eventually promoted to 4th Sergeant. The Watson Guards were mustered into Confederate service on June 12, 1861. Dean was severely wounded in the arm and thigh at the Battle of Seven Pines, June 1, 1862 and his arm was amputated. After he was discharged, he entered the SC Military Academy (The Arsenal Academy) and was detailed to the QM Dept. after the evacuation of Columbia. Yancey Dean died in 1934.
While no positive provenance exists to the haversacks beginnings, Ron Field’s book on Hampton’s Legion states that the Watson Guards received 102 haversacks from the Beech Island Ladies Volunteer Society in July 1861. The heavy, durable construction of the bag and what may be blood stains, along with Dean’s short service period could mean this bag was one of that issue.
Dean's wounds have at least three different stories surrounding them. It seemed to me that a Malvern Hill incident was correct (as opposed to Gaines Hill as is reported at the SCMI Arsenal Academy accounts) and a miread on my part reinforced the Malvern Hill account. That misread was of a letter from James B. Griffin's account dated June 2nd, 1862 that I read as July 2nd, 1862.
Griffin was writing immediately after the Battle as indicated by the tagline that states: Head Qtrs of the Legion, Bivouac in the Woods, June 2nd, 1862. He states " I had command of the Legion and was in front of the Brigade. As soon as I reached the field I got into the fight and the hottest kind of one. The Enemy were in a woods behind which was a battery, which was raking our men at a great rate. . . . Our Loss was fearful -- My command was cut up terribly -- We suffered by far more than any of the rest -- I went into the fight with about 350 men and lost in killed and wounded and missing 154 men -- All this was done within one hour and a half. . . . Yancey Dean was shot in the arm and leg, had to have his arm amputated."
Griffin was a neighbor of the Dean family in Edgefield, SC.
I'm late to the party here but these may be of interest.
I've spent a little time looking up info on Yancey Dean and this SC haversack. Here's what I think I know:
The original haversack is entirely hand sewn; made from a double layer of cotton drill with a plain weave cotton strap 47” long. There is evidence that a closure was present at some point in the bags history due to the remains of the attachments on the flap and bottom of the bag (as may be seen in picture 3).
Yancey Dean enlisted at Edgefield, SC in Gary’s Watson Guards which became Co. B of Hampton’s Legion where he was eventually promoted to 4th Sergeant. The Watson Guards were mustered into Confederate service on June 12, 1861. Dean was severely wounded in the arm and thigh at the Battle of Seven Pines, June 1, 1862 and his arm was amputated. After he was discharged, he entered the SC Military Academy (The Arsenal Academy) and was detailed to the QM Dept. after the evacuation of Columbia. Yancey Dean died in 1934.
While no positive provenance exists to the haversacks beginnings, Ron Field’s book on Hampton’s Legion states that the Watson Guards received 102 haversacks from the Beech Island Ladies Volunteer Society in July 1861. The heavy, durable construction of the bag and what may be blood stains, along with Dean’s short service period could mean this bag was one of that issue.
Dean's wounds have at least three different stories surrounding them. It seemed to me that a Malvern Hill incident was correct (as opposed to Gaines Hill as is reported at the SCMI Arsenal Academy accounts) and a miread on my part reinforced the Malvern Hill account. That misread was of a letter from James B. Griffin's account dated June 2nd, 1862 that I read as July 2nd, 1862.
Griffin was writing immediately after the Battle as indicated by the tagline that states: Head Qtrs of the Legion, Bivouac in the Woods, June 2nd, 1862. He states " I had command of the Legion and was in front of the Brigade. As soon as I reached the field I got into the fight and the hottest kind of one. The Enemy were in a woods behind which was a battery, which was raking our men at a great rate. . . . Our Loss was fearful -- My command was cut up terribly -- We suffered by far more than any of the rest -- I went into the fight with about 350 men and lost in killed and wounded and missing 154 men -- All this was done within one hour and a half. . . . Yancey Dean was shot in the arm and leg, had to have his arm amputated."
Griffin was a neighbor of the Dean family in Edgefield, SC.
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