Blue and white woven coverlet fragment. Matted with a picture of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and a description and provenance. Fragment 2 1/4 x 2 in., overall 11 x 14 in. 

A fragment from a coverlet taken from Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's Lexington, Virginia house by Union soldier Elijah W. Penney. 

Elijah W. Penny (1841-1919) was a young man from Indiana who enlisted at one of the earliest opportunities, on 18 April 1861, as a private into the 6th Indiana Infantry for an initial 3-month service. They engaged at the Battles of Philippi and Rich Mountain, some of the earliest battles of the war. After his initial enlistment, Penny joined the 39th Indiana Infantry, which saw heavy action in the Western Theater, including Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth, Stones River, Chickamauga, the Chattanooga Campaign, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge. 

He re-enlisted for a final time at the beginning of 1864 and was commissioned a Captain into the 130th Indiana Infantry. The regiment immediately moved south and joined Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. During the Siege of Atlanta on August 6th, Penny was severely wounded and required an amputation. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to major on September 1st. The regiment continued with the Carolinas Campaign, and Penny was promoted again to Lieutenant Colonel before the end of the war on 1 April 1865.

Stonewall Jackson's house in Lexington, Virginia, seems to have been left vacant by his widow from the time of his death in 1863 until after the war, when she is known to have rented it out. Lexington was raided and the VMI burned by General David Hunter in June 1864, but there is no evidence that Jackson's house was looted. Penny would have passed through or near to Lexington, Virginia, as the regiment moved from the Carolinas to Washington, D.C., and may have acquired the relic then. 

After the war, he moved west to Topeka, Kansas. He became an active member of the Lincoln Post No. 1 of the Grand Army of the Republic, whose records list all of the regiments in which he served. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Relics, Militaria, Textiles, Americana, Quilts] [GAR, Grand Army of the Republic] [Veterans, Veterans’ Organizations, Fraternal Organizations]