Painted wooden mess chest with metal hinges, handles, and closure. 29 x 15 3/4 x 15 in. Front panel painted: "Mess Chest of the Officers of Co. D 48th Regt. P.V.V."

A rare officers' mess chest featuring interior compartments. It would have held cooking equipment and serving utensils for the officers of the company. 

The 48th Pennsylvania Infantry was organized in September 1861 and was composed mostly of anthracite coal miners. The regiment was hard fought, earning a monument at Antietam and three at Petersburg. 

They were heavily engaged throughout the Eastern Theater, most notably fighting at Burnside's Bridge at Antietam. In 1864, they joined the Siege of Petersburg, where Lt. Colonel Henry Pleasants, a mining engineer, formulated the plan to tunnel under the Confederate battery and blow it up. 

The plan was approved by Meade and Grant, but the 48th received virtually no support and had to improvise tools and scrounge supplies. Despite the success of the mine and explosion, the resulting Union attack was a fiasco. Pleasants was rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general. The regiment stayed in the lines.

A wonderful piece of Civil War accoutrement of a storied regiment. 

Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Relics, Militaria, Accouterment, Equipment, Uniforms]