posted 07-22-2023 11:00 AM            

Here follows a tale:

My mom’s family had a legend that one of their ancestors, who fought in the Civil War, finally gave in to temptation as the rest of his fellows were looting their way along during Sherman’s march to the sea and took a set of silver forks. One item in the collection of random pieces of flatware, was, I was assured, genuine Civil War loot. I nodded politely, but you know how family stories are, and my family is hardly lacking in…fabulists, shall we say? I didn’t really believe it.

When I sat and went through all the bags of silver that had been lying in drawers, sure enough there was a fork with a note accompanying it that it had been taken by an ancestor (not the one I remember being told had done it, but that maybe my own poor memory as they were both named Andrew, just different lines of descent) during Sherman’s March.

I did some quick googling on the maker’s mark:

. . . and whoops, A. H. DeWitt (De Witt?) was indeed a silversmith making flatware in Columbus, GA in the 1840 and 1850s. And seeing that, my jaw (and my heart) sank.

It’s true. This is looted. I have a piece of stolen property.

This bothers me. A lot.

It may be a fool’s attempt, but I’d like to see if I can find out which family this was stolen from, and try to somehow return it to any living descendants or (failing that) to some historical society or museum, ideally in the area from which it was taken. The fork is monogrammed, thank goodness:

But I’m not great at deciphering that kind of lettering. AEB? Can someone help with this?

I would think that it might be possible, if I can confirm that my ancestor was with Sherman (I’m pretty sure my guy was from Nebraska, and regiments were formed by state so that should be doable). I can’t imagine scholarship on the March to the Sea is thin on the ground, if I know anything about Civil War historiography. Perhaps I could find a list of southern families with whom his armies were known to have come into contact? I’m not without resources, fortunately, as I know a few Civil War historians and there is a museum near me with a focus on 19th-century America.

Have any of you ever done this, or know of someone doing it? Are there lists or resources that silver historians can point me to that would speed up the process? Any tips on places I could find information? I have searched the forums and found a fascinating thread about coin silver where people talked about the looting (and noted that much of it wasn’t done by the soldiers, but by the “bummers” who swarmed along in the army’s wake), but didn’t see anything that addressed this specifically.

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Just to save us all some time, let me address some of the following comments which I have gotten from the few people IRL whom I’ve told about this:

"This was so long ago; you shouldn’t worry about it!" It was looted. Period. Museums and collectors are increasingly aware of their obligations in regard to stolen artifacts, and as someone who works in a historical field (I’m a medievalist), this is important to me.

"It’s not like what he did was wrong—everyone in that army was looting! It was how things were back then." No. Sherman issued an order that, while allowing his army to forage food and supplies (an accepted war-time practice), forbade them from entering homes and taking things that weren’t needed for the army. Now, he didn’t exactly go out of his way to enforce this, but it was still understood that looting of non-combatants’ possessions was wrong and what we would now call a war crime. Even if everyone knew that the generals were winking at it, this act was wrong.

"If it bothers you, why don’t you just sell the fork?" And then what, someone else is in possession of stolen property? Not exactly solving the problem.

"So donate the money to a charity, then." See previous response. Also, I doubt it would bring that much, and the value isn’t really the point here, is it?

"Look, he took it from slave owners—they were evil!" I bow to no one in condemning the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade, but that does not change the fact that the fork’s owners were non-combatants. That’s what matters here, not my opinion of their ethics.

"You know you’re going to fail, right?" Look, all I know is that I have to at least try.

posted 07-28-2023 11:34 AM            

I wish I could figure out where he enlisted from to help with that; I know he was in Nebraska by the 1880s because there are letters from him to my great-great-grandmother (his daughter). Was that where he was in the 1860s? Because if so, the "March to the Sea" bit is highly implausible, as the 1st Nebraska never went to GA, they only fought in Chattanooga, TN (on the border with GA) and then were sent west.