Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Confederate Odyssey: The George W. Wray Civil War Collection


George Wray was a collector of antiques known as Americana, which generally means anything old and made here in the USA. His specialty of Americana, however, was from the American Civil War. He collected uniforms, weapons, and documents, but the weapons comprise most of this book. One of the most sentimental pieces in his collection is a blood-stained coat, worn by a young soldier in the Southern army. Wray took pains not only to acquire it, but also to find out who the soldier was, so I guess you can call George Wray the original battlefield detective.

Wray was an employee of a silver company, and his work took him throughout the country, giving him time to go to military collector fairs. The network of antiques dealers on the Confederate memorabilia circuit would keep him posted of any new pieces they had. As for the purchases, he often knew more about them than the dealers. He would discover the particular weapon, go from one antiques fair to another until he found it, and then seek out the gunsmith’s story. During a 30 year hunt for the elusive Thomas Morse, he found that the gunsmith was a Copperhead; a Yankee who took the Confederate side. Morse’s life went from New Hampshire, to Richmond, and back to his hometown again. Not surprising, if you consider that Richmond was a “burned house” at the end of the war, while the Northern industries, especially the gun factories, were bigger than ever.

One of the main points of this book is that the South was unready when it came to industry. As we see with Wray’s discovery of Thomas Morse, it was Northern gunsmiths that took care of the weapons. The South was weak in terms of arms manufacturing, so they really had to improvise. For instance, one of the first (and wisest) things the Confederacy did was raid the arms factory at Harper’s Ferry, then move everything to Richmond. Still, it wasn’t enough, because the South lacked iron to make the guns, railroads to transport them, and food to feed the soldiers. They did however, have a greater number of marksmen, and their best rifles were all designed for sport. Still, it couldn’t win the war for the South. Rifled barrels were more accurate than smoothbores, but they took more effort to manufacture. Breach-loading weapons were easier to load than the old muzzle-loaders, but they were also harder to make. A breech-loading rifled musket would’ve been a great weapon, but even the North didn’t outfit the troops with those. For the South, great fighters were in great supply. Great weapons were not.

Thomas Morse guns were as good in quality as those today. In the Wray collection is a Morse rifle set in a wooden carrying case, containing the usual ammo and cleaning kit, but there’s another important feature; the interchangeable barrels. You could make this firearm into a long-range rifle, short barreled rifle, or shotgun, all in the change of a tube. But this was an expensive weapon, and supplying it to an entire regiment was more than the Confederate government could afford.

Years ago, I had an eighth grade student who’d done a project on the Civil War, and knew the names of all the generals, and how/why the armies won or lost. He shocked the more liberal teachers by writing that he’d rather fight for the Confederacy; as he saw it, the Confederates were fighting with honor. General Lee was a great leader, he said, while (in his opinion) Grant was an alcoholic and Sherman was a bully. Maybe so, after all we have to respect the opinion of the scholar, but it does seem as though the Southerners were willing to put up with hardship. When the war was over, their Yankee allies turned their backs on them and went home, like Thomas Morse. He could’ve taken advantage of cheap land and labor, and a job-generating gun factory would’ve been welcome in Richmond. Instead he went home, now that he had less to gain financially. Wray found that he’d moved right back to his hometown of Lancaster, and bragged that he made sure he didn’t shoot the guys he recognized. Whether anybody believed it, I don’t know. Did they suspect he actually spent the war feted in a Southern mansion, being waited on by slaves, while young boys got killed?

Perhaps this book is about Southern resilience. The guns, though old and used, are in great condition, as are the uniforms. These people took good care of their things, and they’re still intact after 150 years. Thanks to George W. Wray, these guns are all ready to view at the Atlanta History Center, and I’m definitely heading that way if I ever visit that city.

There is one minor thing I find missing here, and that is the documents. I would love to see the letters that the soldiers wrote, if there are any. Wray’s sleuthing in search of the gunsmiths should have unearthed some more documents about these guys. They would tell us one important detail; were the Southern troops optimistic until the end, or were they ware that they were losing the war?

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