MARYLAND STATE FLAG, WEAPONS, UNIFORM, AND ARCHIVE OF FRANK A. TORMEY, CONFEDERATE OFFICER AND MARYLAND NATIONAL GUARD VETERAN

Hand-painted silk flag with gold bullion fringe, 42 ½ x 33 in.; together with associated wartime and postwar relics, weaponry, photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera.

An extensive grouping that documents the interesting military service of Frank A. Tormey, a Confederate officer of Maryland birth who served in multiple commands during the Civil War and later in the Maryland National Guard. Tormey’s story is preserved here through an unusually comprehensive group of personal artifacts: weapons carried in the field, uniform components, commemorative objects, an extraordinary silk Maryland State flag, wartime letters/ephemera, a CDV photograph album, tactics manual, and a prison scrapbook kept during his confinement as a prisoner-of-war at Johnson’s Island, Ohio. Collectively, they form a rare, cohesive archive of a Confederate officer whose service spanned both the early campaigns of the rebellion and the fraught reconciliation of Maryland veterans in the decades that followed.

Born in Maryland, Frank A. Tormey first appears as an Acting First Lieutenant in Holbrook’s Independent Maryland Battery, later as a Lieutenant in Company F of the First Maryland “Rebel” Regiment, and eventually as a Captain in the 42nd Tennessee Cavalry. His record places him at the major actions of Bull Run, Leesburg, Vienna, Shiloh, Farmington, Memphis, Vicksburg, and related skirmishes. Although some accounts cite his resignation from the First Maryland Regiment in January 1862, his continued presence in subsequent campaigns suggests he either remained in service without formal resignation or re-enlisted. In December 1862, he traveled under a Confederate pass to Baltimore, ostensibly to visit his ailing mother, but Union authorities suspected espionage, noting in his record at Fort McHenry that “He is held as a spy.” He was confined first at Fort McHenry and Fort Delaware, then forwarded to Fort Monroe in March 1863. By October of that year, he had reentered Confederate service as a captain in the 42nd Tennessee Cavalry, only to be captured near Memphis and imprisoned at Johnson’s Island, Ohio, where he remained until his release under oath of amnesty in May 1865. After the war, he served in the Maryland National Guard.

At the heart of the collection is a hand-painted silk regimental flag, bearing the State Seal of Maryland and bordered in gold bullion fringe (42 ½ x 33 in.). The flag’s quality and preservation suggest it may have been intended for ceremonial use in the post-war Maryland National Guard, though its symbolism would have resonated deeply with a veteran who had fought under Maryland’s divided banner. It is accompanied by Tormey’s Maryland National Guard officer’s frock coat (measuring 16 ¾ in. across the shoulders, 37 in. in total length, with 24 ¼ in. sleeves). The jacket retains its original Maryland state seal buttons.

Among the wartime weapons retained by Tormey are two examples of the most popular sidearm of the Civil War, the Colt .44 caliber “Army” revolver. Both feature Federal inspector cartouches and were likely procured by Tormey, like many Confederate officers, by battlefield capture, private purchase, or acquisition through the complex wartime networks of arms exchange that often placed Federal-issued weapons in Confederate hands. One of the revolvers bears quite an early serial number.

Complementing the revolvers are two m1840 cavalry sabers with metal scabbards, each showing blackened patina and worn leather grips; one with a 35 ½ in. blade and floral-decorated guard, the other 35 ¾ in. in length. Both exhibit wear consistent with real field and represent the hard service of a mounted officer who served in the western and border theaters. A pair of brass spurs with leather straps that show heavy wear are also included, thought to be wartime.

Smaller accoutrements in the grouping include: a brass bugle (10 ¾ in., bell opening 4 in. diameter); a braided hat cord with twin acorn tassels (11 ¾ in. length); a U.S. Cavalry officer’s bullion-embroidered crossed sabers insignia (2 ½ x 4 in.); a brass belt buckle bearing an eagle with laurel (2 x 3 ⅓ in.); a brass lapel pin of the Great Seal of Maryland, mounted on black velvet and trimmed with bronze coil; and a silk mourning ribbon printed “In Memorial / Lt. Col. Harry Gilmor / March 7, 1883” (a tribute to one of Maryland’s most famous Confederate cavalrymen).

The archive also preserves a CDV photograph album containing fifteen cartes-de-visite. Most of the views appear to have been taken in Baltimore and one portrait (though unmarked) likely shows Tormey in his wartime, officer’s uniform.

One stirring piece included is Tormey’s scrapbook he kept while he was confined at Johnson’s Island prison in Ohio. The frontispiece bears his autograph: “Frank A. Torney / Prisoner of War / Johnson’s Island / Near Sandusky, Ohio / July 8th 1864 / A Scrap Book of Invitations / Both Amusing & Instruction.” Contained in the book are poems, songs, musings, drawings, squadron sketches, lists of names and their etymological derivations, and nineteen signatures of fellow prisoners. The poetry, presumably of Tormey’s original composition, reflects both the bleakness of captivity and his yearning for family. One verse, entitled The Prison on Lake Erie, describes the moonlit view from his cell:

“Dark shadows creep, fade into light, / The stars look down serenely / I sit and gaze out on the scene, / A scene so sad and dreary / And think a weary captain’s thoughts / In prison on Lake Erie.”

Other verses reveal his reliance on the prayers of loved ones to sustain him through “toil and pain.” Some of the poetry and songs he writes relate to the ongoing war. Interestingly, in one passage he references Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow.

The documentary portion of the archive is extensive. It includes multiple official orders relating to the Maryland National Guard: one signed by Harry Gilmor (Baltimore, 1874) assembling the 1st Cavalry Battalion for parade; another by Adjutant General Frank A. Bond (Annapolis, 1875) ordering Gilmor to collect state property from companies under his command; and a further order signed by Bradley T. Johnson as President of the Association of the Maryland Line (Baltimore, 1883) assigning the battalion to staff duty. These connect Tormey’s service directly to the post-war networks of Maryland Confederates who re-forged their martial identity in veterans’ societies and state militia structures.

Additional documents provide a vivid record of his imprisonment. Two receipts (20 August and 19 November 1864), signed by Col. Charles W. Hill, acknowledge funds sent to Tormey while confined at Johnson’s Island, accompanied by their original envelopes. An autograph letter signed by Tormey himself, dated 12 and 25 December 1864, includes a poignant Christmas Day message to his brother and a petition regarding his ill health, co-signed by J. Latimer, M.D.

Letters from Tormey’s family include one from his mother Jane urging him to “be good Frank & resigned to the will of God,” others from his brothers F.D. and J.E. reporting news from home, and one from his niece Kate filled with affectionate detail. Together they reveal the anxious bonds of kinship strained across the prison walls.

Notably, a commission dated 1 August 1874, appointing Tormey as First Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 1st Cavalry Battalion, 1st Brigade, Maryland National Guard, bears the signatures of Governor James Black Groome and Adjutant General Frank A. Bond. Executed on an imposing folio sheet (22 ½ x 17 ½ in.) with patriotic illustrations and the red Great Seal of Maryland affixed, it documents his formal post-war reentry into state service. (Note: This commission has separated along its fold lines).

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.