Important Civil War package to be sold Jan. 1 in Va.
An important Civil War package of over 200 letters and documents pertaining to Lt. Col. Julian E. Bryant, a Union officer who commanded African-American troops during the Vicksburg Campaign of 1863, will be sold as one lot in a multi-estate sale planned for New Year's Day by Tom's Auctions & Appraisals in Courtland, Va.
[USPRwire, Wed Nov 21 2007] An important and historical Civil War package of over 200 letters and documents pertaining to Lt. Col. Julian E. Bryant, a Union officer who commanded African-American troops during the Vicksburg Campaign of 1863, will be sold as one lot in a multi-estate sale planned for New Year's Day by Tom's Auctions & Appraisals. Over 1,000 lots will be sold, starting at 9:30 a.m.
The auction will be the 25th annual New Year's Day sale for Tom's Auctions & Appraisals, based in Suffolk, Va. “We expect this one to be as good or better than any in our history,” said Tom Perry, owner of the firm. The sale will be held at the Franklin-Southampton County Fairgrounds in Courtland, Va., just off Rte. 58. A preview will be held Monday, December 31, from 12 noon to 6 p.m.
The Bryant package is expected to attract interest, but hundreds of other items will cross the block, too, in a broad range of categories. Other expected top lots include a monumental Gothic Revival mahogany secretary, very ornate, circa 1830s, 7' 6” tall; beautiful pieces of R.S. Prussia (20+); period American furniture dating to the 18th century; Hummel; Carnival glass; stoneware; original oil paintings and prints; jewelry; guns and militaria; coins; lamps; country collectibles; and much more.
“We like to say we have merchandise from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries,” Mr. Perry said, “and even some items that are new. And it's true. In fact, we're still not done accepting consignments. By New Year's Day, we might have over 1,500 lots to sell. It's going to be a fabulous sale.” Mr. Perry said a minimum of seven local estates would be represented, plus the contents of Old Kitchen Antiques.
Items in the Bryant package, which had been in the family for generations until recently, chronicle the life and times of a fascinating individual who was ahead of his time and died way too early (at age 28, from drowning in the Gulf of Mexico, while on assignment for the government). Julian Bryant was a lifelong abolitionist who found himself in command of black troops during the Civil War.
The letters and documents are contained in the very leather-bound trunk Bryant owned and carried with him during the war. They include his commission into the 33rd Illinois, signed by then-Gov. Richard Yates of Illinois; his wallet, containing a journal kept in 1862, when he was a spy for the Union Army in Missouri; and court-martial papers, accusing a Union soldier of “hanging Negroes.”
Also included are special orders from when Bryant was Commander of the 1st Mississippi Volunteer Infantry of African Descent, the 51st United States Colored Infantry, and the 46th United States Colored Infantry; his copies of volumes 2 and 3 of “Scott's Infantry Tactics” (published in the 1850s); a journal he kept, inscribed with “First Mississippi USA”; and other documents and ephemera.
Many of the papers are signed by prominent Union officers of the war: Gen. C.E. Hovey, Brig. Gen. John P. Hawkins, Maj. Gen. Dana (no first name given), and many high-ranking Colonels. The package also contains several poems handwritten by Bryant; a book of poetry by Lord Byron; and chapter outlines for a book -- never written -- that would have offered his observations on the war.
Julian E. Bryant was born Nov. 9, 1836. He was the nephew of abolitionist William Cullen Bryant, who had considerable power and influence as editor of the New York Evening Post. Julian's grandfather was Dr. Peter Bryant of Massachusetts, a senator and surgeon who impressed on his sons a “universal brotherhood of man” philosophy. Slaves ate at the same table and were treated as equals.
Three things interested Bryant as a youth: drawing, debate and the eradication of slavery. He also had a flair for speaking. He chose art as a career and studied in New York before returning home to Princeton, N.J. At the outbreak of war, he was an art instructor at Bloomington Normal College in Illinois, but the college president there soon recruited him into the 33rd Illinois Infantry.
In early fall 1861, Bryant, posing as a Rebel recruit, walked into the Higgenbotham Plantation near Pilot Knob, Missouri, and pretended to enlist. What he and a few others were really there for was information, which they got and reported back to Union authorities. The next day, U.S. troops stormed the plantation and took over, in the process presenting arms to 20 slave recruits.
The slaves then, with the tacit approval of their masters, became part of Bryant's 33rd Illinois camp. The regiment marched to Arcadia, Missouri, for the winter, but saw little military action until spring. In March 1862, the 33rd Illinois marched into Arkansas to Bayou Cache. On July 7th, Bryant's unit, with fewer than 300 men, defeated a force of 3,000 Texas cavalry, killing 117 Rebels. In early 1863, Bryant was put in charge of the 1st Mississippi Infantry, African Descent. The black regiments, mustered only a few weeks before, at Vicksburg, knew little about weapons and received theirs (some defective) only the day before their first battle, a violent encounter at Milliken's Bend, 20 miles upstream from Vicksburg. The defenders numbered 900 black soldiers and 161 white.
A Confederate division with 2,500 experienced troops and 200 cavalry, launched a sudden assault on June 17, 1863. The black regiments were hamstrung by lack of experience and inferior guns, but held their ground, even as the battle went to hand-to-hand combat at close quarters. Even then, the black soldiers fought bravely and handled their bayonets with fierce determination, not giving ground.
But even after exhibiting such gallantry, Bryant's men were thereafter mostly relegated to menial duties, like digging trenches and loading and unloading ships. This infuriated Bryant, who wrote letters to higher-ups in the chain of command, as well as his editor-uncle in New York. Slowly, policy changes were implemented that saw black units gain more parity with their white counterparts.
Also part of the Bryant group but slated to be sold as a separate lot will be a soldier's furlough, printed in Georgia in 1863 and issued to J. Bolton Smith, of Ballantine's Cavalry. The item is significant because of the many important signatures it bears, including Brig. Gen. Cosby, W. H. Jackson; Capt. E. L. Montgomery; and others. The furlough was signed by command of A. E. Johnston.
To learn more about the New Year's day sale, and for directions to the Fairgrounds, you may click on the Tom's Auctions & Appraisals website, at www.tomsauction.com. Many photos of the items have been posted, and new images will be added as additional consignments are secured until the day of sale. A buyer's premium of 13% will be applied to all sales (3% discount for cash and checks).
Tom's Auctions & Appraisals is one of the premier auction houses in the mid-Atlantic states. The firm is always accepting quality consignments for future auctions. To consign an item, estate or collection, you may call them directly at (757) 539-2498, or (757) 617-9647. The e-mail address is tombuys@tomsauction.com. Refreshments will be served all day at the New Year's Day sale.
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