November 15 & 16, 2022 Extraordinary Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/15/2022
This silver Bottony cross ranks at the top for the engraving and the history of the owner. Published in Hartzer’s 1983 article on Maryland Confederate Crosses, the cross is beautifully engraved on the obverse with the owner’s name and unit so as to function as an identification pin as well an emblem of state loyalty and pride. The engraving is a combination of block letters and script, reading from the top “Co. A / G. Hough / 1st/ Md / Cav” with initial letters given long decorative flourishes matching the curving floral spray at the top of the cross and the “eyebrow” palm fronds in the finial lobes of the horizontal bar. Between the company designation and his name, the engraver has added a small anchor: a symbol of steadfastness, faith and hope, partly religious no doubt, but partly political in his determination to fight in the name of his native state though it remained in the Union. A wartime photo in uniform shows a young man with the determined look of a fighter. He was certainly dedicated to the cause, serving through the war in no less than 3 Confederate organizations, all of them fighting units. Born in 1844, Gresham Hough enlisted first in the “Maryland Guards,” under Capt. W.H. Murray, accepted for Virginia state service as Company D, Weston’s Battalion Maryland Infantry at Weston & Williams Store on Pearl Street in Richmond on June 12, 1861, mustering 6 days for 12 months service and assigned as Company H, 1st Maryland Infantry. At Bull Run they helped cave in the right of the Union line, gaining their Colonel a battlefield promotion to General. Hough is present on existing muster rolls, placing him with the regiment also in Jackson’s Spring 1862 Valley Campaign and the battles of Front Royal, Harrisonburg, and Cross Keys. At discharge of the regiment in June 1862 Hough joined Company A, 1st Maryland Battalion of Cavalry, for “three years or the war,” in fact joining 3 days before his discharge was official. In this he joined a core group of Maryland veterans from the 1st Virginia Cavalry, with the company eventually growing to a battalion and regiment. They served with Jackson at Manassas and Antietam, then in the Valley on picket duty and small unit actions. In 1863 they raided into West Virginia and later scouted for Early’s advance in the Gettysburg Campaign. They saw action as a rear guard in the retreat from Gettysburg, and in Fall 1863 fought at Morton’s Ford, Brandy Station, and numerous skirmishes. In Spring 1864 they countered raids by Kilpatrick and Sheridan, and fought against Grant’s advance, including a fierce fight at Pollards Farm, defense of the South Anna bridge, and Trevilian Station, followed by Early’s raid against Baltimore and Washington in July. Records indicate Hough joined Mosby’s command in Fall 1864 having been on detached service from the 1st Maryland and discharged by August 31, 1864, indicating his term of service may have been calculated from his 1861 enlistment. In any case, this puts him in Mosby’s battalion in time for their raid on Merritt’s cavalry, the Manassas Gap Railroad Raid, the Greenback Raid, the Valley Pike Raid, the rout of Blazer’s command, the B&O Railroad raid, fight at Mt. Carmel Church, Munson’s Hill, Harmony, and the B&O Derailment raid. Mosby disbanded his command rather than surrender it and Hough is found paroled only later, on April 12, 1865, at Winchester, and taking the oath of allegiance 4 days later at Harpers Ferry. He went into mercantile business after the war, and in his final years lived in New York City, where he died in October 1894. This badge is a beautiful combination of art and history. CONDITION: Excellent.
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