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Day 1: Historic & Early Americana

Fri, Apr 24, 2026 09:00AM EDT
Lot 205

[CIVIL WAR - SLAVERY] 1863 Contrabands Clothing Receipt

Estimate: $250 - $500

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $10
$100 $25
$300 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$50,000 $5,000

No. 52. Receipt Roll of Clothing Issued to Contraband Teamsters of the 102nd Regt. Ills. Vols. Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Signed by Asst. Surgeon William Hamilton. Gallatin, Tennessee, May 1863. 1 page, 13 7/8 x 16 7/8 in.

 

The form for issuing uniform and clothing to NCOs, artificers, musicians, and privates was requisitions to record the issuance of clothing to six "contrabands" - self-emancipated slaves who found freedom and employment behind Union lines. The document records that "trowsers, pair (Contraband), flannel shirts, bootees, and stockings" were given to "Jeremiah McMuray (Laborer), Thomas Covey (Teamster), William Wallace (Teamster), Philip Penn (Teamster), Henry Baker (Teamster) and John McDanals (Blacksmith)." Each man signed by mark and was witnessed by Assistant Surgeon William Hamilton. The docketing also lists the regiment's Quartermaster Captain Francis H. Rugar (1826-1865). 

 

The 102nd Illinois Infantry served in the Western Theater after it was organized in the summer of 1862. They were stationed at Gallatin, Tennessee (not far from Nashville) from the fall of 1862 until June 1863. They would go on to join Sherman's Army in the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign.  

 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [USCT, United States  Colored Troops, Glory, 54th Massachusetts, Buffalo Soldiers, Black Soldiers]          

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