Bullet-stricken pocket prayer book carried by a Vermont soldier
Heritage Auctions / ha.com
The Artifact
Bullet-stricken pocket prayer book carried by a Vermont soldier
Condition
A bullet bent and dislodged the front cover; the back cover over the years has also become loose; but the book is essentially complete.
Details
Edwin C. Hall was 17 when he attended a “war meeting” at a local Vermont church in September 1862 and was inspired to enlist as a private in the 15th Vermont Infantry. After his nine-month term of service ended—time the 15th spent mostly in defense of Washington, D.C.—Hall returned home. Dissatisfied with civilian life (he apparently did not care to return to school or work on the family farm), Hall enlisted for a three-year term in the 10th Vermont Infantry. Unlike his first stint in the army, his time with the 10th included heavy fighting and close calls on the battlefield. He was wounded in the knee at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 1, 1864, and in the thigh during the fighting for Petersburg on April 2, 1865, after which he was briefly held prisoner. Four days later, at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Hall’s 3-by-4-inch pocket prayer book (shown here) saved him from serious injury or worse when it stopped an enemy minie ball that lodged in its pages. Hall mustered out of service the next month with the rest of the 10th; by his estimation, he and his comrades had marched over 2,000 miles in their time together. Hall returned to Vermont, where he worked as a newspaper editor. He died at 68 in 1913, at the Soldiers’ Home in Bennington, Vermont.
Quotable
In April 1898, Hall sent his bullet-stricken book to a man in Cincinnati with a note that read in part: “This prayer-book saved my life by stopping a musket ball at Sailor’s Creek. I hope you may use it in your museum. I have always put my trust in the Lord, and he has … always come through for me.”
Price
$15,535 (realized at Dallas, Texas, in December 2012). “This is a singular and spectacular treasure that testifies to the dangers encountered on the battlefields of the Civil War,” a Heritage Auctions representative noted then. “Practically impossible to find.”
