Description |
ACCOUTREMENTS, LOT OF THREE, comprising a belt with pistol holster having a period "CSA" inscribed to back, saddle bags, and a pair of double pommel holsters. Circa 1860. Various sizes.
<i>Good as-found condition with expected wear, cracking, and some losses.</i>
Provenance: Historic property descended in the Clopper-Hutton family, "The Woodlands", Montgomery Co., MD.
Exhibited: Gaithersburg Community Museum, Gaithersburg, MD, 2014.
Catalogue Note: Originally owned by Private William D. Scott (1843-1864), Company D, 14th Virginia Calvary, Greenbrier Co., Virginia (now West Virginia). When Scott was found wounded on the Clopper family's porch at "The Woodlands" in 1864, he asked, "Can I die on your porch?". Private Scott and the 14th Virginia Cavalry were part of Gen. Jubal Early's raid on Washington, DC in 1864. This story of Scott's wounding and death is derived from Gene Domalski.
Scott was a member of a six-man scouting party who, on the evening of Sunday, July 10, stopped by the home of Joseph A. Taney asking for food. As they took dinner, they were fired upon by a Union cavalry unit. Pvt. Scott mounted his horse in the Taney barn, but he was shot in the side by one of the Union soldiers. Despite his wound he still managed to ride into the woods across Seneca Creek eluding his Union pursuers. He found his way to "The Woodlands", home of Francis Clopper and his family, where a black servant reported his presence to the family. The Cloppers were Unionists but their daughters took pity on the dying boy and took him in. They located a Confederate surgeon who removed the bullet, but despite this effort Scott died shortly thereafter. Since it was illegal and dangerous to harbor enemy troops, the Cloppers buried Scott in secret at night in an unmarked grave under the hedge in front of the nearby Saint Rose of Lima Catholic church. The Daughter's of the Confederacy erected a stone marking his grave in the 1930s. This lot and the preceding lot were removed from Scott and his horse and retained by the Clopper family, descending to the current owner.
|