Group of Civil War Veterans Engineer & Pontonier Ribbons – SOLD

Description

This group of three Engineer and Pontonier Corps ribbons and badge came word of mouth from a Civil War veteran named James A. Turnbull.  He was mustered into Company “I”, 3rd Regt, Mass Vol. Heavy Artillery, as a private from Springfield, Massachusetts on February 10, 1863, mustering out on Sept. 26, 1864.  He was a pistol maker by trade.

Extract; Civil War Data site.

“Company ” I “, nominally a part of the 3d Battalion, had an experience entirely different from that of the other companies. It was recruited largely from mechanics employed at the National Armory in Springfield, Mass., and was employed as an engineer corps It never served with the rest of the regiment, but was at once assigned to duty under Capt. F. N. Farquhar, U. S. Corps of Engineers, and was placed in charge of the pontoons of the Army of the James. After a few weeks of drill and practice the men of Company “I” became expert pontooniers. They built two pontoon bridges across the Appomattox River, connecting the Armies of the Potomac and the James, two across the James River below Chaffin’s Bluff, and in April, 1865, constructed the pontoon bridge at Farmville, which was used by the 2d and 6th Corps in the pursuit of Lee’s fleeing army. It later built the bridge at Richmond by which the Union armies crossed the James River on their way to Washington after the war was done. In addition it ran captured saw mills, built wharves and roads, and performed engineer duty in general.”

The earliest ribbon is not dated, made of white silk and bearing the Corps insignia (approximately 6 inches high).  The yellow silk ribbon is dated 1904, it being the 10th reunion of the Un-attached pontoniers of Co. I, 3rd Mass HA. The final item an engineer/ pontoon boat pin bar and red ribbon, attached to a celluloid badge for the 46th reunion of the Engineer brigade of the Army of the Potomac, at Geneva, NY in 1918.

All are in excellent condition.