posted 09-22-2004 12:40 PM            

An ebay search for this firm name did not locate this item, but if you are contemplating selling this on ebay, rather than buying it, as your photo's URL implies, please be reminded that the SMP guidelines forbid using this information for pusposes of commercial sale.

posted 09-22-2004 05:46 PM            

From the Pittsburgh, PA Post Gazette,
Friday, April 04, 2003

Exhibit Preview: A rose and a sword from Gettysburg
By Marylynne Pitz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Of the Civil War mementos from Pittsburgh natives, few are as romantic or moving as the dried rose Levi Bird Duff sent to his deeply religious wife, Harriet Duff of Allegheny City.

The flower arrived in a short letter, one of many the captain wrote while serving in the Union Army. Dated July 4, 1863, the letter describes the horrific aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg.

"I send you a kiss on a rose bud I picked on the field yesterday while the battle was raging. It grew amid the carnage," Levi Duff wrote.

Duff often sent flowers in letters to his wife, who pressed them into an encyclopedia. By war's end, Mrs. Duff had more than 30 flowers from such battlefields as Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, North Anna and Cold Harbor.

A Clarion native, Duff was 23 when he enlisted in 1862 and rose to the rank of captain in Company D of the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

After being wounded at the battle of Seven Pines later that year, he married Harriet Howard Nixon. In 1863, he returned to active duty.

A second wound Duff suffered at the Battle of Petersburg forced the amputation of his right leg.

"He kept the musket ball that wounded him in the chest," said Nicholas Ciotola, who curated the exhibit. Due to his injuries, Duff was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant colonel and spent the rest of his life in Allegheny City.