104

Mid-19th Century

EXTENSIVE AND UNIQUE COLLECTION OF MEMORABILIA PERTAINING TO RHODE ISLAND'S CIVIL WAR HOSPITAL

A U.S. Army General Hospital, named Lovell General Hospital, in the Portsmouth Grove area of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, was active from 1862 to 1865, caring for thousands of patients. The surgeon general of the U.S. Army authorized Rhode Island governor William Sprague IV to "provide suitable accommodations for wounded and sick soldiers" in May of 1862, and the first patients arrived at the hospital just a few months later, on July 6. Because some patients were Union soldiers convicted by court martial or were Confederate prisoners of war, guards were posted at the hospital, comprised of Rhode Island militia or two companies of Veterans Reserves Corp (VRC) soldiers. Katherine Prescott Wormeley, a key organizer of the United States Sanitary Commission, was an early superintendent of the hospital. The hospital was named after Joseph Lovell, who served as the Surgeon General of the United States Army from 1818 to 1836. After the hospital closed August 25, 1865, the buildings were dismantled or removed. The site was later used as a U.S. Navy coaling and oiling station, then as a PT-boat training base during World War II, but it is now in private hands. There are no remnants of the hospital that once stood.

Lot includes:
1) Binder of approx. 41 original letters from John M. Lovejoy of the 121st New York Volunteers, written mostly while a patient at the hospital, and assorted ephemera pertaining to Lovejoy.
2) Binder of approx. 37 original letters written to or from patients in the hospital, including John W. Warner of the 1st New Hampshire Volunteer Cavalry and Whitman W. Bosworth of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Also includes a rare pre-printed envelope addressed to "Mr. G. Henry Prescott, U.S. General Hospital Ward 27, Portsmouth Grove, R.I." and other assorted envelopes and ephemera.
3) Binder of hospital-related ephemera, notably a handwritten mess hall menu, transfer orders, and a rare pass allowing admittance to the hospital grounds issued by the paymaster general of the Rhode Island militia.
4) Binder of approx. 40 CdVs depicting the hospital grounds, patients, staff, etc. One image is believed to be an American Indian Union soldier while he was a patient at the hospital.
5) Binder of approx. 31 Civil War-era CdV photographs and lithographs, including some of Lincoln, soldiers and officers.
6-8) Three binders filled with images pertaining to the hospital, mostly contemporary enlarged reproductions of period photographs and prints.
9) Binder of ephemera pertaining to hospital nurses, including a page from a U.S. House of Representatives report detailing a request by Harriet N. Read for a pension for her nursing service at Lovell, and nine post-Civil War letters from Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, a hospital nurse who was also a noted author.
10) Binder of eight CdVs of U.S. Naval Academy cadets and instructors, and Naval officers. The Naval Academy was located in Newport, Rhode Island during its temporary relocation from Annapolis, Maryland, during the Civil War.
11) "Circular No. 6. War Department, Surgeon General's Office, Washington, November 1, 1865. Reports on the Extent and Nature of the Materials Available for the Preparation of a Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion". Philadelphia: Printed for the Surgeon General's Office, J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1865. Paper wraps. 12.75" x 10".
12-13) Reproduction photographs of the steamer Perry and a band outside the Naval Academy in Newport.
14) Photo album containing approx. 46 CdVs of the Robert Russell family of Cooperstown, New York. Includes two images of Dr. George Miller Sternberg, who was an assistant Army surgeon at Lovell and later served as the 18th U.S. Surgeon General and founded the Army Medical School. Sternberg is also considered by many to be the "Father of American Bacteriology" and wrote Manual of Bacteriology in 1892. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, also seen in the album, was one of the first civilians to die of cholera in 1867, which she contracted while living at a Western outpost where her husband was assigned.
15) Autograph album containing numerous signatures of Rhode Island Civil War soldiers.
16) Extremely rare colored lithograph "Lovell General Hospital, U.S.A., Portsmouth Grove, R.I. View from Dyer's Island", printed by Endicott & Co., New York. Framed with a receipt from the steamer Perry, which is seen in the lithograph, and two blurbs about the steamer and the hospital. Lithograph 16" x 23" sight. Framed 26.5" x 31.5".
17) Reconditioned colored print "Company C 13th Regiment Maine Vol. Infantry Soldiers' Memorial ... Mustered Into U.S. Service Dec. 4th, 1861. ...". Framed 26" x 20".
18) Fifteen clippings from Civil War soldier envelopes, mostly depicting patriotic motifs in red, white and blue. Housed in a shadow box frame. Framed 17" x 21".
19-22) Four contemporary books, including Rhode Island's Civil War Hospital by Frank L. Grzyb, two on "Upton's Regulars" and one on "Buckskin Joe".
Also includes extensive annotations and research notes.
Condition: Most items generally well preserved.

  • Provenance:
    Amassed over three decades by a Rhode Island military veteran and author. Statement from the collector is included with the lot.

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April 1, 2021 9:30 AM EDT
East Dennis, MA, US

Eldred's

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