November 15 & 16, 2022 Extraordinary Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/15/2022
This epaulet bears a period ink inscription on the underside "Capt. Edelin Maryland vols/ taken at / bull run / 21st July 1861.” Edelin was Captain of Company B, 1st Maryland, and led it at First Bull Run, where their brigade struck the Union right on Chinn Ridge and precipitated the collapse and retreat of the entire line, earning their Colonel a battlefield promotion to General by Jefferson Davis. Edelin is also credited with capturing the flag of the 1st Michigan from their wounded color-bearer. Born about 1828, Charles Columbus Edelin was Maryland native living in Washington, DC, when the war started. We find him in the early 1840s as a US Marine Corps drummer boy and he apparently used this, with some claims of Mexican War service and a promise to “fight” his men rather than just drill them, to be elected captain of a Maryland company organized at Point of Rocks, gaining a commission dated May 21, 1861. As 1 of the 2 earliest companies of the 1st Maryland, it became Company B. In addition to leading the company at Bull Run, Edelin took it to North Carolina while they were on furlough for reenlisting in March 1862, acting as heavy artillery in the defense against Burnside on the coast. They were presumably back in time for Jackson’s Valley Campaign, but Edelin’s records are fragmentary. He is listed as hospitalized in Richmond with a gunshot wound in July 1862, though place of wounding cited and other records indicating disease. He is listed as hospitalized again in January 1863 for 2 weeks, but returned to duty January 27 and only picked up again in December 1863 and early 1864 as hospitalized in Richmond. This may have lasted until May when he went to Castle Thunder “for field,” which may indicate he was among officers commanding a group of Confederate States prisoners who had volunteered to help defend Richmond against a raid by Sheridan, adopting the name, the “Wise Legion.” Edelin seems to have been something of a fire-eater, having been investigated before the war for announcing in Washington that he would shoot Lincoln, which likely explains why, after he turned himself into Federal authorities at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in October 1864, professing to no longer believe in the Confederate cause, he was required to take the oath of allegiance twice. That change of face certainly affected later recollections of him by former comrades and may have blotted out other actions. One officer had described him as short of stature, but “a very D’Artagnan” in dress and bearing, wearing tall boots and a heavy sword. Another later derisively referred to him as “puss in boots.” This is a very good Maryland related relic of First Bull Run, and we suspect there is a lot more to Edelin’s story than his service records reveal. This epaulet is featured on pg. 153 of “Band of Brothers” by Dan Hartzler. CONDITION: Dull patina with nice color and fringe. Padded underside with inscription exhibits flaking and areas of loss. Inscription is faint but legible. A fascinating battlefield relic.
Item Dimensions: 10" x 9".
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