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LARGE & IMPORTANT CIVIL WAR ARCHIVE, CAPT. LEONARD

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:8,750.00 USD Estimated At:17,500.00 - 27,500.00 USD
LARGE & IMPORTANT CIVIL WAR ARCHIVE, CAPT. LEONARD

BLINN, 100TH OVI, POW DIARY, POW LETTERS & HIS EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION AT FORDS THEATER. Truly fine and well-preserved archive of a survivor of 15 months in Confederate prisons with detailed diary & letters. He was at Ford’s theater and witnessed Lincoln’s assassination writing vivid detailed account April 15, 1865 which is day after Lincoln was shot and same day he died. This archive descended from direct family descent, and much is transcribed. Leonard B. Blinn (1837-1924) enlisted in 1861, serving with 21st Ohio and then 100th when captured. He escaped three times and wrote detailed accounts. He last escaped November 26, 1864 from military prison at Columbia, SC and it took him 32 days to travel 40 miles finally reaching Union lines at Sweetwater, TN on Christmas morning 1864. This archive includes:
1/ Fine sm. leather bound bible inscribed "Presented to L.B. Blinn by his wife Carry M. Blinn" & beneath that another inscription. “He enlisted in 3 months service April 1861 & it was returned to me in September 1863 after he was taken prisoner of war.”
2/ Pocket diary 1863. Highly detailed for January & then sporadic bureaucratic notes as to supplies given to this company. His last accounts before being captured concerns delivery of swords & belts. September 8th, 1863; "taken prisoner" this is where this diary ends & sent home w/ his bible.
3/ Sm. pocket memorandum book which Blinn kept w/ him as prisoner and served as POW diary: originally company supply book, after capture he lists 16 fellow officers w/ their units including George Rings & 38 enlisted men "Company A, 100th regt. OVI taken prisoner at Lime Stone Creek Sep. 1863". He apparently was able to give his sword and revolver to a captain in the 4th Kentucky cavalry as he notes. After surrendering we were “marched to Jonesboro about 8 miles from the fight into court house w/ nothing to eat. 9th Sept. were ordered aboard box cars & started for Bristol…shut up tight so that it was almost impossible to live, ordered into another train which was a little more comfortable. 10 Sept. Left for Lynchburg VA and were marched up to a military prison & for the first time in 48 hours received a sm. piece of bread & meat from Rebs...Sep. 12th arrived at Richmond and escorted to Libby prison…” He goes on w/ short daily accounts of his time in Libby. “It seems as though the Confederacy is about played out or else they intend to starve us. Our ration today is 1/2 of a sm. sweet potato & a sm. piece of corn cake not fit to eat”. 6 Pages of his first escape April 16, 1864, 11pm from cars on train near Columbia, SC. He and companion were on the lam for 5 days, encountered slaves, were given dinner by a Confederate widow whose husband was killed in battle, they told her they were in 25th Alabama and paid $11 for food to carry, unaware that they were escaped Yankees, questioned by Confederates thinking they were deserters, finding out that Sherman was not yet near Atlanta. Most people they encountered were very despondent about the war. Blinn and his companion had traveled close to 50 miles but finally while hiding could hear some Confederates looking for them and heard them say that their dogs were on their track. “We saw very plainly that we were gone cases for when we raised up the men saw us and we went directly to them, preferring to be taken by human beings than by dogs….” Their captors were good to them and “lodged us in jail and gave us a splendid supper. 22nd slept very well last night and this morning Mr. Wilder [jailor] gave us ham and eggs for breakfast, and took us out under the shade trees to wait for the train that is to convey us to our prison…23rd Augusta jail, we arrived here last night and found more unfortunates recaptured who had got off the train the same night…. 25th Macon prison, Ga… This is a hard looking place, it is worse than Libby….”
4/ 37 Prisoner of war letters most with original POW covers to wife, they span Sept. 14, 1863, through November 18, 1864, Most from Libby, but others from Military prisons in South Carolina. There are a couple other wartime letters, over 125 postwar family letters and documents, prewar and after.
5/ Blinn wrote to his congressmen and 1867 telling of the atrocities by Confederates to prisoners of war in detail. A copy of that letter is in archive along with transcriptions of letters and diaries, maps showing his positions during the war.
6/ Photograph of Capt. Blinn with Capt. George Rings also of 100th OVI and was captured and held in various prisons together: George went into army with brown hair but came out with white hair due to deprivations of prison camps for such an extended period.
7/ Lg. albumin photograph of Capt. Blinn in uniform w/ his wife.
8/ Blinn family photographs including war time CDV of Blinn.
9/ His stunning 1st hand account of Lincoln’s assassination he conveys in 3-page letter to his wife the morning of his death: “Long before this reaches you will have heard of the nation’s calamity in the assassination of that good man and the father of our country, Abraham Lincoln. It has so happened that I was one of the spectators…… I saw the president and his wife enter their private box…..“I heard the report of the pistol, the shrieks of Mrs. Lincoln, and saw the assassin jump on to the stage and disappear through the rear of the theatre. His words sic semper tyrannis he spoke very distinctly as he jumped from the box where he committed murder….Such an excitement followed as I hope I may never witness again. It was found out instantly that the president was assassinated. Women fainted and the police and military authorities were arresting every suspicious person. The assassin has not been arrested yet. I will know him if I see him again. The president expired this morning, the city is draped in mourning, bells are tolling and there is great indignation against all rebel sympathizers… I am heart sick and cannot write more. Death to all traitors is heard on every corner.… I saw the president after he was shot, also the pistol that he was shot with…”. An online bio/obituary states Blinn caught Mary Lincoln’s handkerchief at Ford’s Theater that night also, no wonder he had such detailed account of killing.
The Perrysburg, Ohio Blinn family were part of American history, Clara Blinn is famously remembered as being captured by Indians in 1868 with her 2 year old son Willie and later found dead by George Custer’s men after battle of Washita. Her desperate note of capture is another great paper relic “Clara Blinn letter” institutionalized in Independence, MO.
Condition: letters, covers, photos all very good overall, as expected the POW diary shows soiling and wear from 15 months in hell, but all discernible with some pages scuffed requiring more scrutiny to read. (02-16675/JS.) $17,500-27,500.